


Space He Needed To Breathe

by hunters_retreat



Category: CW Network RPF, Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, December Drabble Days, IN SPACE!, Inspired by a Movie, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-04
Updated: 2010-02-04
Packaged: 2018-01-10 05:50:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 23,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1155860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunters_retreat/pseuds/hunters_retreat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jared's life was going no where fast until the day he landed himself on the RLS Beauty.  With nothing to lose, he follows an old sailor out to space, but what happens when Jared gets caught between the disapproval of Jeff and the murderous temper of Captain Ackles?  How is he supposed to clear his head and find his own path, when he's torn between proving himself and obeying the Captain's every order?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

[ ](http://s1180.photobucket.com/user/hunters_retreat/media/Art%20Made%20by%20hunters_retreat/Space%20He%20Needed%20To%20Breathe%20by%20hunters_retreat/Spaceheneededtobreath.jpg.html)

Jared shoved the rest of his clothes in his bag before he headed over to the dresser and grabbed the photo resting there. He ran his finger over the worn path; the edge of his father’s face would have been eroded years ago if it hadn’t been for the glass covering it. He thought about throwing it in his pack, but decided against it. As much as he would like to take it with him, he wasn’t about to take the only photo he had of the two of them where it was likely to be lost.  
  
He wondered if he should bring anything else, but when it came down to it he wasn’t going on a pleasure cruise. He took a deep breath as Jeff’s voice just kept running through his head, things like _teach him responsibility_ and _make him grow up_. Things like _last chance_.  
  
He knew he had it coming. It wasn’t that he tried to do the wrong thing; he just needed space sometimes to think. He needed to be able to take the lead instead of just going where people told him to. He needed to understand why everything that had once been so good in his life had gone to hell.  
  
He heard the door open and, though he had been expecting his mother, it wasn’t that much of a surprise to see Jeff standing there instead.  
  
“I made a few calls, and we’ll be on a ship in the morning,” the older man said.  
  
“Why are you doing this?” Jared asked as he watched his mother’s friend sit on the bed. He slumped down beside him, trying to understand his motives. “Why didn’t you just let them take me off?”  
  
He’d never understood Jeff and he didn’t really think he ever could. Jeff had shown up after Jared’s father had died, giving his mother the comfort of a friend who had known him and giving Jared someone to hate for it. He didn’t hate Jeff anymore, but back then he had. The other man had met his father while sailing, and he’d come to their home to offer condolences along with others. Only Jeff had stayed, saying it was time to put down roots.  
  
He’d become Jared's mother’s best friend and the only person Jared even occasionally listened to. When he was younger, Jared had blamed him for his father’s absence, but in the end he’d put aside the anger and the accusations, everything from Jeff searching his room to trying to steal his mother’s love from him, and learned to accept that Jeff was just what he seemed: an old sailor who left the wide world and decided to settle.  
  
It didn’t mean their relationship was anything less than rocky though. Jeff was brusque and uncaring one moment and then soft the next, leaving Jared mostly confused in their conversations. He was never sure of his footing with Jeff, never sure if the man really cared about him or if he was just trying to help out his mother. He still didn’t know.  
  
Jeff looked about as uncomfortable as Jared was to be having this conversation. “I know you didn’t set the house on fire, no matter that the cops think we’re all crazy for listening to your story. I know how much the inn meant to your mom, and I know how much she means to you. If you say a bunch of pirates were ransacking the place and they set it on fire while you escaped, then I believe you.”  
  
It wasn’t like they hadn’t had trouble with pirates before. Living on the outer rim of space in one of the lower cost inns in a port town, you got to see a lot of trouble. Jeff deterred a lot of it, an old sailor who kept in touch with their underground network and had an ear to things Jared didn’t want to know about.  
  
A time or two, when things got rough, Jeff had scared him with his ruthlessness, but he’d been a kid then, not yet grown into his height and uncertain of how to handle himself in a fight. He’d learned since then. He wasn’t a stranger to a fight anymore; hard to be when he worked the door for his mom on busy nights.  
  
It wasn’t the fights that got him where he was, though. Jared was well aware of his size and the impression he gave if he didn’t school his face away from the dour, angry outlook he often had. Instead, he cultivated a smile and remained as gentle as he could around others. No, his smile and mannerisms kept most people from fearing him, and the neighborhood knew that if they needed something, Jared was always the first to help out.  
  
Jared's problem was that he was never satisfied with what people told him he could and couldn’t do. If you told him it wasn’t okay to do something, he had to do it to understand why, and if he didn’t agree with your reasons, he continued to do it anyway.  
  
He tried not to think of the sector police or the look on his mother’s face, the broken sky surfer and how many times he’d had to fix it up. He hadn’t really been in danger, but it wasn’t until he was soaring into the restricted higher altitudes or flaring through ruins and dilapidated urban wreckage that he felt alive, that he felt himself.  
  
Part of him knew that he was courting danger every time he did it, but he’d rather face the danger than the dull monotony of the classroom and the expectations of his teachers and peers.  
  
“Jared, you don’t belong in some holding cell, and you sure as hell don’t belong in the military school your mother was talking about,” Jeff said, bringing him out of his reverie. “We both know it won’t do a damn bit of good. You’d rebel just as surely there as you do here. Maybe, just maybe, getting away from this, away from these expectation will help you settle down a bit.”  
  
Jared snorted. “You honestly think it will work?”  
  
Jeff ran a hand over his face, a gesture Jared knew meant he was tired. “I don’t have a clue, Jared, but your mother needed to hear that maybe something would. If not, you can consider it your last big send off before you do something stupid enough to really hurt someone and end up in prison.”  
  
He got up then, looking back at Jared as he reached the door. “Your mother said dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes. She asked me to stay, so I’m going to. I’ll be back for you at six tomorrow morning, though, so don’t make it a late night. Your mom is counting on me to help you through this, Jared and the stars help me I’m going to do what I can. Let’s at least try to make it work.”  
  
The door closed softly behind him and Jared wanted to throw something, to run out of the room and tackle the man for his words, but he didn’t. Instead, he took a deep breath and tried to figure out what to say to his mother to make her believe Jeff’s words. Jeff was right—about that, anyway. His mother deserved to think he could find a way through whatever he was dealing with. It was for her sake and her sake alone that he’d come up to pack in the first place. For her sake, he’d find a way to smile through dinner, tell her how much he loved her, and walk out the door in the morning without looking back.

 

  
  
Jared had grown up around the space port, but he couldn’t help the awe he felt as he stared up at the great ships, knowing that this time he’d be sailing out with one. Jeff didn’t say much about what they were doing, only said that Jared would be working to earn his keep in a gruff voice that meant he was serious. Jared had no choice in the matter.  
  
Jared was out of school now, and while his friends had all left for universities or some greater adventure, he was still trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. His summer had so far accumulated three visits from the sector police and one judge threatening to send him to jail if he saw his ‘dangerous, reckless, unkempt ass’ in his court one more time, which spoke volumes of his success in that area. He just couldn’t seem to find a way to settle into anything that resembled a routine. As soon as it felt too commonplace or ordinary, he was suddenly jumping off the rafters or something as equally stupid and dangerous.  
  
Looking up at the crisp clear lines of the ships towering over him, he wasn’t sure that this wasn’t just as stupid and dangerous, but Jeff had brought him and he wasn’t going to back down. Especially not when everything in his body was aching to surge up and grasp one of the mooring lines, climbing his way to freedom aboard a ship.  
  
It was a romantic notion, he knew that. He remembered his father coming home, exhausted from his latest trip and taking days to recover. He remembered watching in fascination as his father would shave, his own tiny fingers mapping out new bruises and cuts and scars like they were the most awe-inspiring things he’d ever seen.  
  
He remembered his father telling him that he should never, ever be a sailing man because the beast took your devotion and your mortality and spit them both back at you at every chance she had. His words had always stirred Jared’s heart, though, and sometimes at night he could hear the crash of waves or feel the pressure of the galactic currents trying to crush the ship’s shields and leave them drowning in her wake.  
  
He’d never thought of taking to a ship, not after his father’s death and his mother’s grief and the promises she’d made him give at the time. Jeff had pulled out all the stops, though, telling his mother that maybe this was what he needed, that perhaps it was in his blood, and if it were, there was nothing else that would make him happy. If it were truly in his blood, nothing but the Beast would sooth him.  
  
He knew that it was all just said to give his mother some peace, to allow her the time to let him go, but Jared held onto the small part of himself that hoped it was true. It had been his father’s calling, after all. Why shouldn’t it call to him too?  
  
Jeff didn’t seem to believe it. In fact, Jeff seemed to think Jared was going to go wild right there in the space port from the way he eyed him as they walked, so Jared gave him a small smile, trying to keep his enthusiasm down. As hard as the idea had been the night before, as hard as it had been for him to pack and to say goodbye to his mother in the morning, being in the port itself had pushed that to the back. It was damn near impossible to keep a smile off his face.  
  
Jeff stopped him as they reached their entryway. “I need to have a few words with the captain in private once we get introduced, so you’ll keep yourself in line, alright?” Jared barely had time to nod before Jeff went on. “This is a chance to see if you’ve got your father’s blood, boy. I never wanted it to come to this, but I don’t see any other way.” His eyes were harder than Jared had ever seen them, cold and distant in a way that made him shiver like he used to as a kid. “Just keep your head down and follow orders. I’ll be working my way through the journey as well, so I won’t have time to keep an eye on you. You don’t have a choice but to do as the captain says, and you'll do it to the best of your ability. Got it?”  
  
“Of course,” he said, trying to keep the anger out of his voice. He didn’t like Jeff treating him like a child or the way he was hiding things from him already. This was the first he’d heard about Jeff working as part of the crew as well, the first time he mentioned that Jared wouldn’t be with him the whole time.  
  
Jeff gave him a once over and shook his head before walking into the entrance way and up the gang plank.  
  
Jared let the other man get a few paces ahead of him before he started up the way. He let his eyes take in the sight of the ship and smiled as he saw the letters on the side of her, proudly proclaiming her the R.L.S. Beauty. He wondered what sort of captain named his ship Beauty and if it were pride in her construction or something shallower that named her. He couldn’t argue with it, though. The ship was beautiful, one of the more modern that sailed the galactic waves the way the old mariners sailed the oceans. It looked like something out of old Earth antiquity, though, with its solar sails and wooden finish.  
  
He let his fingers run over the railing as he took a step into the chaotic dance that was every ship before her departure. The wood was warm to the touch, something to do with the hybrid composition that made it look and feel like real wood but strong enough to hold against the pressures that would crack the original material. It felt like silk under his hands, though, the groves of her planks softer than he would have expected. He closed his eyes, and he could see it in his mind’s eye, the way he once had when his father spoke of trimming sails and solar flares and star clusters that blew away the imagination.  
  
“It seems you like Beauty.”  
  
He opened his eyes, startled at the intrusion, but his angry words died on his lips as he stared into the greenest eyes he’d ever seen. He licked his lips, because if there were ever a mouth that deserved to be kissed it was this one, but before he could think of anything to say, a sailor came clambering past, roughly patting Jared on the shoulder.  
  
“Captain Ackles has another one dazed and speechless on sight.”  
  
The men around them laughed at the coarse humor and the captain scowled at them, but when his eyes returned to Jared’s, there was humor in them as well.  
  
“Captain Ackles, Jeff Morgan.”  
  
Jeff came up to stand beside him then, offering the captain his hand. The captain smiled at Jeff, something harder than when it had just been the two of them. Jared looked away then, trying to keep from blushing at having been caught staring at the captain by his own crew, no less.  
  
“Mr. Morgan. It’s really good to see you again.”  
  
“If we could have a word, Captain, in private?”  
  
The captain indicated a path to Jeff, and they were off then, leaving Jared to stand by the railing, trying to stay as unnoticeable as possible.  
  
“Don’t worry, lad,” one of the men said, coming up beside him. He was wiry and a little scary with his wild hair and a smile that said he just might be a bit mad. “There are some who say there’s siren in his blood, make man or woman, elder or child blush at first look. Can’t keep your eyes off him, willing to dash your soul against the rocks and drown in him if he’d ask ya.”  
  
“Really?” He smiled because he’d heard of sirens too, heard of the old Earth legends and how even now sailors spoke of the space siren who caused you to leap from the ship, pushing through the pressure shields that protected them from space to try to reach the ethereal creature that none but the one they called ever heard. Some people had said he’d been taken by a siren. “What do the sane people say?”  
  
The man laughed and humor slid into his eyes, the way madness had seemed to before. “That the captain is just too pretty to be natural. Too pretty and too damn lucky.”  
  
“Can you be too lucky?”  
  
The man nodded. “When you work with a bunch of superstitious fools, being too lucky is as bad as being too unlucky. People sometimes wonder if it’s a devil on his back or a demon on his shoulder, steering him through the worst of storms.”  
  
“And what do you say?”  
  
“I say the captain was born riding the winds, and experience and the feel for his ship give him an edge that most men never achieve.”  
  
Jared smiled as he held out his hand. “Jared Padalecki.”  
  
“Jim Beaver, first mate.”  
  
The other man took his hand with a firm grip. His hands were calloused from years on a ship, and Jared could feel the muscle in the man’s frame. He was more than a little surprised to find that such a young captain had a grizzled veteran as his second-in-command, but it made sense in a way. If men worried about Jensen’s youth—and the captain could only be four or five years older than Jared—the older man might settle that for them.  
  
“You been sailing with the captain for long?” he asked, continuing to caress the ship’s railing once his hand was free of Jim’s.  
  
“Since he was a lad. Watched him when he went off to the Academy and was still there when he came back ready to sail. Never had to think twice when he asked me to set sail with him.”  
  
“He’s younger than I would have thought.”  
  
Jim laughed. “That he is, but he was born riding the Beast, and there was never a time anyone thought he’d do something otherwise. He could read the winds as easily as breathing, and even when his old man was killed in space he held true to himself. Always knew what he wanted and how he was gonna get it.”  
  
“Must be nice,” Jared mumbled.  
  
Jim looked like he might say something else, but then he was straightening up. “Morgan?”  
  
“Beaver? Thought she’d have swallowed you up by now!”  
  
Jim walked over to Jeff, hands meeting in the middle as they smiled at one another. “Thought the beast had spit you out on some back planet.”  
  
“Just needed a little getaway from the land life before I got too old to remember how to do it right.”  
  
“You sure you didn’t wait too long?”  
  
Jeff threw his head back and laughed, Jim’s lips curving up into a strange smile as he watched him.  
  
“Old friends.”  
  
He nearly jumped as the captain spoke from behind him. Captain Ackles’s smile was warm, and he nodded down to a flight of stairs. “Jim, get our new cook set up. I’ll be showing the cabin boy to his duties.”  
  
“Cabin boy?” Jared and Jim asked in chorus. Jared looked back at Jeff who gave him a stern glare, as if telling Jared not to embarrass him. Jared found himself wanting to avoid that as well, but for entirely different reasons.  
  
The captain didn’t answer either of them, just turned to walk away. It wasn’t until he was sliding his finger over the door panel that he realized they were heading towards the captain’s quarters. “Press your fingers here,” he was ordered.  
  
A shiver ran through him because there was something in the captain’s voice that meant _now_ , and he responded without thought. He pressed his fingers where told and felt the tingle of it running up his hand.  
  
“You now have access to my cabin at all times,” the captain said as the door swung open.  
  
It wasn’t a large room, but it was huge for a ship. A desk was built into the wall on one side, one chair held in place by straps, and a panel was ready to pull down to keep its contents secure when not in use. Beside it was a large open window that gave a clear view of the world they were sailing into. He knew from the railing below that the captain’s bed slid out from under it.  
  
A table sat next to the door, bolted to the floor, along with chairs that were strapped in the same as the desk but which could be easily be unstrapped for use by anyone the captain might choose to bring in.  
  
Captain Ackles was moving through the room. Across from the bed was another small door. When he opened it, Jared followed, surprised by a small bed and desk in a room off his cabin. “This is yours. As cabin boy, you’ll be expected to learn from whoever I tell you. When your services are not required by the ship, you are at my beck and call.”  
  
Jared swallowed hard against the lump in his throat because that sounded rather ominous. Not that he couldn’t think of a number of things he’d like to do to service Captain Ackles, but he knew better than to think that just because the captain was young and beautiful, it meant he was soft in any way. If Captain Ackles wanted to demand his liver on a platter, in space, he would get it.  
  
“Yes, sir.”  
  
“In here you can call me Jensen, so long as you remain respectful. In front of the others, it is Captain or Captain Ackles at all times, understand?”  
  
“Yes. Jensen.”  
  
“Unpack your bags and head up to the deck. We’ll be taking off soon. You have the first day to keep an eye on what the others are doing, to try to learn your new surroundings and the new crew. After that, you’ll be put to work.” He walked back into his own quarters, and Jared watched him, realizing that there was nothing he could do in there that Jensen wouldn’t know about. His privacy was exempt as a cabin boy, and while it should have mattered a lot more, he was oddly okay with that.  
  
“After dinner, you’ll come back here tonight, and we’ll discuss your first morning’s duties.”  
  
“Yes, Jensen.”  
  
Jensen smiled as he looked over his shoulder and then left Jared to unpack and get his bearings.  
  


 

Jared spent the day watching the people on deck, sure that he would be tested by the captain that evening. He helped out a little from time to time, but no one seemed to need him around. He didn’t know what they were doing and, as he was told more than once, getting out of space dock and into open space was a hard enough task without inexperienced hands. Jeff caught him watching the skies around him at one point and demanded to know why he wasn’t working, but when Jared told him about Captain Ackles’s orders, he just huffed gruffly.  
  
The only one who seemed to be happy to have him around was the first mate. When he wasn’t too busy, Jim took the time to point things out to Jared, teaching him terminology and orders that he couldn’t begin to decipher on his own. Jim told him about the crew and who was better to learn from, which were likely to start fights. Half the crew seemed to have chips on their shoulders, and considering the large one Jared carried around, he figured it would be an interesting voyage.  
  
Jim took off on his own as it started to grow late. They kept to standard time based on their port of departure. Jared looked out at the open space around him and realized if he were home his mother would be busy in Jeff’s kitchen, making something to eat. She’d be lonely without the inn’s inhabitants to feed or Jared there, but she was staying at Jeff’s and at least that was familiar. While Jared was away, she’d have time to deal with the fire and maybe see about new construction. He wasn’t sure what she’d do. He’d been too caught up in his own head as Jeff whisked him away to wonder how she’d pass the time without him.  
  
He took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he gripped the railing a little tighter. He could feel the hum of the engines underneath his hand, the gait of the men around him moving with efficient purpose but no real rush, and he could feel, just faintly, a sense of peace.  
  
When he opened his eyes, he was staring out at the flaring tail of the comet as they chased through it. The brilliant white light danced with color, and it was right there before him, his eyes filled with the spectacular nature of it. He wanted to reach out and grab it with both hands, and even as he thought it, he wondered about sirens and stupid cabin boys who lost themselves on the first day.  
  
“Some of the men forget.” He heard the soft voice beside him but didn’t turn to look at the captain. “They get so hardened being at space that they stop seeing the beauty of it.”  
  
Jared wondered if that were where the name of the ship came from, but he didn’t ask. He was afraid to break the reverie.  
  
“It makes me a fool, I suppose,” the captain said softly, “to be so fascinated by something so dangerous. If there was ever anything worth dying for though, I can’t help but think the journey is it.”  
  
Jared let go of the rail, pushing away slightly. The captain didn’t know him, didn’t know that his father had died at space. He didn’t know how his father’s absence had ruined his mother and destroyed Jared’s whole world. If he thought the darkness of space was worth dying for, he didn’t know anything.  
  
“I suppose it does, then,” Jared managed to bite out.  
  
Jensen turned away from the comet tail and looked at Jared, something calculating in his eyes. “Give it time, lad,” he said with a crooked smile. “She’ll grow on you. Before we’re done, you’ll be reading the currents like an old salt.”

“You seem pretty sure that I’ll have a knack for it.”  
  
Jensen gave him a full smile then, brilliant and warm. “Riding the winds is in the blood. Once it calls, you can never go back.” He looked back into the open space around them. “She’ll ride you hard if you don’t accept it, but I think you will in the end.”  
  
“Who’ll ride me?”  
  
“The beast. She’ll ride your blood and tempt you with beauty and treasures you can’t imagine, and when you finally accept, she’ll leave you with nothing but a splintered ship and tattered sails. But you’ll follow her call, always.”  
  
Before Jared could even think of a way to respond to that, Jensen’s face grew stern. “Dinner now. We’ll discuss your duties in my cabin as soon as I’m finished.”  
  
Jared nodded, confused by the change of attitude.  
  
As the captain walked off, Jared felt someone behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see Jeff there, watching the captain.  
  
“The bell you heard was a call for dinner. Don’t suppose anyone else thought to tell you that yet,” Jeff said as he looked at Jared. “Men are sitting down, and if you want a full belly you better get below deck.” Jared nodded, but he could tell there was more that Jeff wanted to say. “Be careful, Jared. The captain seems to be a good man, but he gets lost in the beast. It can kill you quicker than anything.”  
  
“Then why are we sailing with him?”  
  
“You take what you can get, Jared. Sometimes you take what you can and find a way to make it work.”  
  
Jared nodded, but he knew there was something else Jeff was trying to say, something Jared wasn’t sure he wanted to understand.

 

  
  
Dinner was obnoxiously loud and boisterous, the men sharing their adventures since they’d last sailed together. It was then that Jared learned that their current trip was paid for by a private sponsor and that none of the crew knew anything of who it was or where they were headed. The Beauty was the captain’s boat, brand new out of the space port, and he’d yet to fill the full crew. Most of the men on board had been hired by their sponsor, and there was something in Jim’s manner that made Jared feel he disapproved. Jim hadn’t said anything directly and Jared was smart enough not to comment himself. In all, they seemed coarse and crude and not unlike the men his father had told him about. They seemed to lack the loyalty that his father had, the belief that the crew had to look out for one another or they’d all flounder.  
  
They had entertaining stories, though, and Jared listened to them, laughing along with Jeff and the others while Jim told a few of his own. Jensen watched it all, a small smile on his face. The crew called on him to tell stories, but he refused, insisting that Jim was far better at capturing his adventures in word than he was. When he stood to leave, he nodded to Jared. Jared went to follow, and it was then that Jeff caught his wrist. “Just remember, boy. You do what the captain tells you to. Everything the captain tells you to.”  
  
He wasn’t sure what it was all supposed to mean, but when Jeff sat down, Jim was watching him with dark eyes. The crew started laughing about cabin boys and their duties, but Jared left before they could get going. Bilge and scrubbing were as far as he wanted to hear.  
  
When he got to the captain’s quarters, the door was already shut. He pressed his fingers to the entry panel, and the door swooshed open. He stepped through, pushing away his anxiety and hesitation. He didn’t want the captain to dislike him already, and the only order he’d been given so far was to meet him after dinner.  
  
When he walked in, the captain was sitting in front of the desk, his boots already pulled off and his jacket hanging on the back of his chair. “First thing after dinner, you’ll pull out my bed and settle everything so it’s prepared when I’m ready to sleep.”  
  
“Of course,” Jared said, moving to the other side of the room to hide his discomfort as the door slid closed behind him. The captain’s tone had been warm and jovial all day long, teasing and joking with the men, but with a slightly reserved air. There was something different now, though, something almost cold in his words, and it had Jared worried. He knew nothing of the man, just that he was supposed to live in close quarters with him for the next few months as they went only God and the captain knew where.  
  
He dropped to his knees and found the panel for the bed, opening it as he slipped out of its way. Everything was pulled askew from the movement, so he pulled the sheets and blankets into place, pillows fluffed softly the way his mother did back at the Benbow Inn.  
  
When he was done, he stood and looked up to find the captain watching him. He stood a little straighter, feeling suddenly self-conscious. “Anything else, sir?”  
  
“I remember telling you to call me Jensen when we were alone.”  
  
“Yes, sir, Jensen.”  
  
Jensen’s eyes tightened as he stood, crossing in front of Jared, slowly circling him. He stopped on the second circuit, standing just behind Jared’s shoulder. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing here, but I assure you your friend had a fairly detailed list of ways that I would be able to use you on this trip. I watched you on the deck today, and I have to say, it doesn’t seem like you’re much of a sailor.”  
  
“I thought that was why I was your cabin boy? To learn?”  
  
Jensen let out a humorless laugh. “You seem to have a good feel for the ship, for the mood of the men as you walked among them. You avoided the men you should and seemed to make some sort of headway with those that would be willing to show you a little. So yes, you will learn. But that’s not why you’re my cabin boy.”  
  
Jensen moved around him again, stopping to face him. He pushed slightly on Jared’s shoulders, but it was enough to send him back a step. He pushed a second time and Jared stumbled, his knees buckling against the edge of the captain’s bed, falling back onto it. He started to get up, but Jensen pushed him back down, towering over him.  
  
“You have no idea what a cabin boy is, and you let your friend sell your into that position for the length of our journey. If I told you to lick my boot on deck with everyone watching, you would do it. If I told you to mop the deck with your hair, you’d do it.” He leaned down, pressing his body over Jared’s, his hands on either side of the other man’s head. “If I told you to drop to your knees and suck me off in front of the entire crew, you’d do it.”  
  
Jared’s eyes grew wide and he started to push up off the bed, but Jensen’s hand was on his throat, not hurting, but hard enough for Jared to know he didn’t have a chance of getting up. There was something demanding in Jensen’s eyes, and it hit Jared again that he had no idea who the man was. The warmth and charm from earlier were gone, replaced with a ruthless and cunning gaze.  
  
Just as quickly as it had come, it was gone, though, and Jensen was pulling off him, offering him a hand up. “That is what being a cabin boy means. That is what the man you deem friend brought you on the ship for. Be lucky you landed on the Beauty. I’m not that type of task master.”  
  
“Jeff wouldn’t do that.”  
  
Jensen gave him a hard look, but didn’t respond to his denial. “Be wary of where you put your trust, Jared. The men of this crew are of a different sort than I usually sail with. I don’t know their worth, and I worry what we will find at the end of the voyage.”  
  
“Why take them on, then?”  
  
Jensen shook his head, a small smile gracing his lips. “You ask a lot of questions. But I was commissioned for this voyage with the provision that my sponsor pick the crew. They aren’t men I would normally have on my ship, with the exception of Jim.”  
  
“So what is it you want of me?”  
  
“I want you to come in and fix my bed at night.” Jared stiffened slightly, and Jensen must have seen it. “I will not require you to fill it. However, the crew will be making the assumption that I have, and you would be best to let them believe it. If you are not filling my bed, they will expect you to fill someone else’s.”  
  
“But… that’s not… how can…”  
  
“When we’re out of port, anything can happen on this ship, Jared. Few captains would take on a commission like this, and if I had a full crew already picked for the Beauty, I wouldn’t think of allowing someone else to pick my men. They are on for one journey and one only. When we come back I will take the time to handpick my crew, but I couldn’t turn down that sort of money. These men are hard and weathered, men who know their business, but who knows what happens in the depths of space? When this ship docks at the end, if I’m not on it, who’s to say if I died at space or I was murdered in my sleep? It’s a line we walk when we take men into space. It’s why we handpick our crews so carefully.”  
  
Jared nodded. “You can trust me.” He didn’t know why he was saying it, except that even with the fear that ran through him, he knew Jensen hadn’t hurt him even when he could have. He gave cryptic warnings and advice, but he could have done a lot worse. Thinking of the men on the ship, of Jim and Jeff and the other hands he’d met that day, if there was ever a side to be drawn, he’d stand with Jeff and Jim and Jensen, he was sure.  
  
Jensen smiled as his eyes raked up and down Jared’s body. “I think maybe I can. Outside of Jim, you are the only one I might grow to trust on this ship. Something to think on.”  
  
Jensen turned away then, pulling his shirt over his head and throwing in onto the table. He walked to one wall and pressed a button. A small basin came forward, filled with warm water, and Jared’s mouth felt dry as he watched the smooth expanse of Jensen’s back when he bent over to run the water over his face.  
  
Jensen grabbed a small towel and dried his face. He turned, and Jared was left with a clear view of toned abs. Freckles dotted Jensen's chest as Jared's eyes went higher, and he blushed when he realized Jensen was watching him. A smirk filled Jensen's face as he threw the towel aside and moved closer to Jared. “Clean up the mess I’ve made. Every night, you’ll settle my bed, clean up after me, and then you are free to do as you wish. Tomorrow, you’ll go to your friend. You’ll let him know that you followed my instruction to the letter. When he asks what I made you do, you’ll tell him I forbade you to talk about it, which I do. If any member of the crew asks, Jim included, you don’t tell them. If they harass you about it, tell them to ask me.” Jensen smiled. “I have a very vivid imagination.”  
  
Jared felt his face heating up. He wasn’t sure what to feel around the captain at that moment. Jensen was the most attractive man he’d ever met, but there was the other side of him, the one that pushed Jared to the bed and could have taken anything he wanted, and Jared wasn’t sure which part was Jensen and which part was show. He lowered his eyes at the mere thought of what Jensen might tell them, recalling his earlier daydreams of the things he’d like to do to the captain. He wasn’t so sure about that anymore. He wasn’t sure that what Jensen was saying was true, that Jeff had willingly put him in a position to prostitute himself out to the captain if Jensen chose to take him up on it. He didn’t like Jensen’s implication that no one would stop him, not even Jeff, if he did.  
  
“After breakfast you’ll go with Jim, and he’ll show you the run of the deck. You’d do good to learn everything you can from him.” Jensen leaned forward then, and Jared backed up until he was against the wall. Jensen laughed softly. “I said I wouldn’t make you fill my bed and I mean it, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t expectations, and we need to take care of those. Hold still.”  
  
Jared did, biting his lip to keep from pulling away as he felt Jensen’s breath, hot and moist against his neck. He felt Jensen pulling at the buttons of Jared's shirt as his tongue licked against Jared's collarbone. “Jim will make sure you stay out of trouble.” He pushed Jared’s shirt off his shoulders, trapping his arms behind his back with it. He leaned in then, biting Jared’s neck and sucking at the skin there. Jared closed his eyes and tried not to buck against the other man, because he wanted nothing more than to feel the press of Jensen’s body, even if he didn’t trust him.  
  
He was turned abruptly, and he had to catch himself against the wall as Jensen pressed him in, his knees pressing against his to buckle them. He felt another bite to one side of the nape of his neck, and he pressed his head into the wall to try to control the fear and desire that raced through him.  
  
He was no stranger to sex and he knew what he wanted, had always thrown himself into anything he wanted with more passion and flare than brains, but what Jensen did to him was completely unexpected. Hell, he’d never have thought the older, shorter man would have the ability to manhandle him the way he did, to make him fearful, but as Jensen stepped away and Jared turned towards him, arms still pinned behind him with his shirt around his elbows, the look in Jensen’s eyes terrified him.  
  
Jensen gazed at him for another second then turned away, walking back to his bed. He stripped quietly and crawled into bed, calling the lights to dim. “Just turn them off when you’re done.”  
  
Jared took a shaky breath as he got control of himself. Jensen’s back was to Jared as he walked across the room and picked up Jensen’s clothes, shaking hands hanging them in the closet. Jared moved quietly, hoping not to disturb the captain, completely confused about his own desire to strip down and join him. He wasn’t stupid, though. Whatever he’d gotten himself into, it was just starting.  
  
He called the lights off as he slunk into his own quarters. The door wouldn’t close, and he realized it was on Jensen’s command alone that the door between their quarters shut. It gave his words more weight, and as Jared stripped and crawled into his own, much smaller and less comfortable bed, he couldn’t help the questions that surfaced around not only Jensen, but Jeff as well. Old doubts and fears surfaced, and he couldn’t help but wonder what Jeff had gotten him into and if he’d survive the journey. He felt bad at the thought, but he fell asleep with the idea that just perhaps, Jeff hadn’t planned him to.  
  


 

He woke early the next morning with the light of the captain’s window shining into his room. The ship lights gave the appearance of day and night, but this was something more. When Jared opened his eyes and looked out the door, across Jensen’s bed and to the window, he could see the green-blue swirls that danced around the edge of the Omega suns. He dressed quickly and made his way onto the deck.  
  
There weren’t many men there yet, and Jared didn’t expect them. They were hardened, as Jensen had said, men who weren’t all that impressed with the sun they had sailed past for years. Jared couldn’t help but gawk at it, though.  
  
“There are wonders in the wide world that you never dreamed of, Jared.”  
  
He looked over his shoulder to find Jeff watching the sun as well. He thought about what Jensen had said, about what Jeff had possibly signed him up for without explaining to him, and he lost all words. He dropped his eyes from the other man’s face and turned to look at the sun again.  
  
He felt fingers pull at his collar, and he pushed them away, blushing at the memory of Jensen’s mouth against his skin. Jeff let go, but there was a relieved sigh, and Jared had to close his eyes against the pain that settled into his heart. Jensen wasn’t lying about Jeff. He’d known and was just relieved that Jared had followed orders.  
  
“The captain treat you right?” he asked.  
  
Jared’s head jerked up as his mouth hung open, gaping at the other man. “What would you care, Jeff?” He stepped closer to him, not wanting anyone else to hear his words. “You didn’t care that you were whoring me out to the captain without my consent! You didn’t care that you told my mom you were going to take care of me but sold me to the captain the minute we set foot on his ship!”  
  
“Mr. Morgan, is there a problem here?”  
  
Jared stepped away from Jeff immediately, his eyes falling to the planks at the captain’s feet.  
  
“No, sir, Captain, sir. Just checking on the boy to see that he performs his duties.”  
  
Jensen smirked at Jeff. “That’s my job. And as admirable as it is that you find time to make sure everyone else’s work is done properly, if I’m not mistaken, you have a job of your own to do. Or did the breakfast bell ring without my noticing?”  
  
Jeff’s jaw clenched, and Jared knew it was anger that set the hard lines around his mouth. “No, sir. On my way now, sir.”  
  
Jensen watched the other man go, stepping closer to Jared just as Jeff was turning down the stairs to the galley. “Making waves with my crew already Jared?” He was standing too close and they both knew it, but there was nothing Jared could do but keep his eyes down and swallow against the lump in his throat.  
  
“Of course not, Captain. I was just watching the sun, sir. Jeff was just checking to make sure I wasn’t shirking my duties.”  
  
Jensen stepped back, laughing as he did. He took a few steps, and when Jared raised his eyes he realized Jeff was just disappearing down the stairs, having witnessed the exchange. “Report to the first mate after breakfast. He’ll make sure you can’t get into any trouble.”  
  
Jeff’s glare seemed less prominent when Jared went to the galley, like the captain’s display made him more at ease. He felt his anger rising again, that Jeff had sold him off in some fashion, taking the bruises sucked into his skin as proof of his duty. He ground his teeth but didn’t say anything, just filled his plate and started eating. He kept his eyes down because if he didn’t, he noticed the looks that passed around the table, the way the men could plainly see the one bruise the captain had left. He was sure now Jensen marked him that way just so the men would see it. The men seemed a little easier around him now that he was claimed, and they looked at Jensen with a different eye.  
  
Jensen seemed oblivious to it all, but there was a smug smile on his face that Jared knew was for show and a relaxed gait to his walk that belied the night’s events. He remembered what Jensen had said about people’s expectations, and he realized that this was exactly what it all meant. The men expected their captain to be one thing but Jensen wasn’t that man. Until he could prove himself to this crew, he had to find a way to live up to the things he could.  
  
Jared found himself blushing, wondering how many more nights he’d find himself pressed against the wall with Jensen biting into him. He looked away, trying to hide the color of his face. There was another chuckle from the men across from him, and he knew he hadn’t hidden it well at all. Or maybe it was just the way he’d been watching Jensen. He didn’t know, but when he dared to look up at Jensen, there was the warmth that he’d seen the day before.  
  
“Time to make a man out of you,” Jensen said, loud enough for everyone to hear.  
  
Jared’s eyes shot up, not sure what Jensen wanted from him, but his threats from the night before still rang in his ears. Jensen nodded then, and Jared looked over to where Jim was standing at the base of the stairs leading to deck.  
  
“Don’t know about a man, but we’ll make a sailor out of him, that’s for sure.”  
  
The men laughed, and Jim gave Jensen a hard stare as Jared joined him on the steps. Jared looked back at Jensen just as he leaned forward, talking to one of the others. The way their eyes trailed after him left little doubt as to what they were discussing, and Jared found himself running from the galley. It was the last time he had to wonder, though. After that, he heard the men talking about it. All. Day. Long.

 

  
  
  
The next few days were the same, Jared waking each morning and trying to ignore what the crew said about any new marks that appeared on his body as he quickly ate his breakfast and headed onto the deck with Jim. Most days he worked with the first mate, but he was handed off to learn specific things, like working with Nooks who explained the proper way to tie off the lines and how to patch up the sails should they need it, or learning how to keep a look out in the crow’s nest with Scroop. At night the men told stories or sang little jigs to entertain themselves. Jensen always watched them, listening with a smile on his face, but he never offered his own up. Jeff was a popular storyteller, though, and the men generally asked for more when he was done with one story or another.  
  
When Jensen grew tired, though, he always caught Jared’s eye and nodded towards the stairs. Jared tried to go before Jensen because it was less obvious if he went before the captain made a big deal about leaving. He’d get the bed settled, and after a few nights he’d come to unbuttoning his shirt as well to save the time. Jensen marked him most nights, his body pressing Jared back into the wall or into his bed. It was always extremely intimate, the way Jensen would breathe words into his neck, telling him his orders for the next day or critiquing what he’d seen Jared doing. Then, when the new marks were done, Jensen would strip, leaving a trail of clothes for Jared to clean up and settling into bed, always with the door between them wide open.  
  
The amount of pure physical work he was doing made sure he slept hard, but he would lie in bed each night, waiting for the exhaustion to catch up and trying to understand the things Jensen did to him.  
  
As the weeks continued, he worked with more people, learned more and more about the ship. He had to be told less, and even Jim’s corrections became fewer. They moved on from things like swabbing the deck to scraping the space parasites from the hull and learning to chart the stars. Not that he was allowed to forget that he was just a cabin boy, though.  
  
Which was why he was scrubbing the decks as everyone got ready for the noon meal. He was finishing the last corner when one of the hands came through, knocking over the bucket and sliding into Jared as he tripped.  
  
“Watch it, cabin boy!” Scroop said, his eyes daring Jared to say anything.  
  
It was the latest in a long line of slaps to his ego. Scroop liked to take his time telling the other men exactly what a cabin boy was good for, and every time he called Jared by that title it was a reminder, not only of the insult but of Jeff’s betrayal and the way the captain wound him up and terrified him in ways that he didn’t know how to react to. Jared didn’t have it in him to back down this time. “You watch it! I’m working here.”  
  
Scroop had never made any pretense of liking Jared. Every time he’d been sent up to the crow’s nest with the man, he’d made comment after comment about Jared’s prowess in bed, because it was obvious his skills as a sailor were not what kept him aboard. It made it hard for Jared to bite his tongue, knowing that everything they thought about him was a lie, but he had his orders and he wasn’t about to disobey them. He wasn’t entirely sure that Jensen wouldn’t prove his claim on Jared like he’d said he could the first night. Jared didn’t think he would, but on the other hand, he knew the captain did things the way he did for a reason, and Jensen liked to be pressed against Jared as he marked him.  
  
Scroop pushed Jared and Jared pushed right back, not stepping back as he normally would. Instead, he drew up to his full height which was normally hidden in the slump of his shoulders. Scroop’s eyes widened at that, fully expecting the cabin boy’s capitulation, not to find himself backed off by an angry 6’4” Jared. Scroop’s hand reached to his belt then, his knife coming out of the sheath, but before Jared could react Jeff was there, pushing Scroop off balance and into the wall.  
  
“Knock it off, sailor,” Jeff told Scroop, pressing the man hard into the wooden surface. “Captain sees a fight and it’ll be the lash.”  
  
It was the first thing Jeff had done since they’d arrived on the Beauty to make him think the man might actually care about him but Jared wanted to scream. The men would never see him as anything but the cabin boy if Jeff and Jensen kept interrupting his fights, and Jensen was very good at ferreting out fights on the ship. Not just his, but any.  
  
“A problem, Mr. Morgan?” He heard the captain’s icy voice from above, and he knew without a doubt that Jensen had seen the whole thing.  
  
“Of course not, Captain. Scroop was just offering to finish up for Jared, weren’t you, Scroop?”  
  
The other man scowled at Jared before nodding to Jeff. “Of course. The cabin boy looks like he could use a break. Must not be sleeping well.”  
  
The captain didn’t address the comment any more than he had any other time. “Very well, then. As you were.” He waited a moment to see Scroop pick up the mop before he turned his attention to Jeff.  
  
Anger filled Jared. He knew the consequences for what he wanted to do to Scroop. Instead, he went with the only other thing he could do to get rid of the poison in his veins—he let out a yell, saw the way Jensen’s eyes widened and how Jeff was trying to grab him from his peripheral, and then he was diving over the railings of the ship.  
  
To the side was a simple sky surfer that he’d used more than once to clean the windows of the captain’s cabin or to patch up the hull. He had no safety line, and he knew the consequences if he’d misjudged, but his anger pounded through him as he caught the small sail in one hand and wrapped the rest of his body around the mast. It swayed as he landed with both feet on the board, but he didn’t give it time to settle before he reached over and threw off the mooring.  
  
He pushed the sky surfer to the front of the Beauty, his whole body aching for the relief that he could only get through this. He felt the push of the ship’s shields as they pressed through them and then he was suddenly thrown out, the sky surfer shifting under him at the sudden burst of speed.  
  
It was unlike anything else he’d ever done. As much as he’d always pushed the limits, he had always been planet bound. To be in the middle of space with nothing but the sky surfer and his own instincts to keep him alive, he couldn’t help but throw his head back, screaming out the joy of it.  
  
That feeling drowned out everything else, the fear and desire and betrayal he felt, the awe and amazement casting them out of his blood as he felt the wake before the Beauty catching up to him. He turned the sky surfer into the wake and moved with her, letting the sky surfer flip, landing on the other side of the wake with a precision he’d always loved. He continued to play in the wake until they got closer to the moons and then he was gripping the sail board tight, playing between the wake and the moon’s gravity wells and magnetic pulls.  
  
He rode his way through each, slid from one stream to another until there was nothing left in him but the exhilaration of the moment.  


 

  
  
When he made his way back, none of the men would look at him except Jim and Jeff, though Jeff was glaring at him in a way that reminded him of when they’d first met. He had stopped shivering over Jeff’s glares anymore, though, and Jim just looked him over and said, “You done with that, then?”  
  
Jared nodded and they were back to work like none of it had happened.  
  
Jim pulled him up to the aftcastle where he had the star charts pulled out and set over the one long surface they had to work on. The charts were pinned down, and as Jim worked with him, Jared forgot entirely about the earlier confrontation.  
  
Jim hadn’t, though. After a while, he took a bite from an apple and looked out across the ship, leaving Jared to stare at the charts. “So you gonna explain what that was all about earlier?”  
  
“Does it matter?” Jared asked crossly, his earlier anger returning quickly.  
  
“Maybe not to anyone else, but it does to me.”  
  
Jared sighed. Jim had been nothing but good to him, and he didn’t deserve that sort of treatment. “Sorry. I’ve just had it. Scroop is pretty bad, but he’s not the worst, and as much as I try to just let what they say fly off my back, I can’t. And I know the captain has strict rules against fighting, but every time I think I could settle something if they knew I wasn’t going to back down, in comes the captain and everyone walks away. Or Jeff today.”  
  
“They’re looking out for you, kid.”  
  
“Yeah,” he said with a short snort. “And if they hadn't, I’d have already proved I didn’t need them to, and that’s what this is all about.”  
  
“Is it?”  
  
“You know what they say. I can’t prove to them I’m something more than his cabin boy if I don’t get a chance.”  
  
Jim huffed and turned to look Jared in the eye. “I’ll tell you this once. Any man on this ship that says you ain’t provin’ your worth on this voyage is lying. You might not have known a damn thing when you stepped foot on this ship, but you do now. Given the time, you’ll make a good sailor, Jared. Don’t let them sabotage that by making you fly off the handle. The captain has more ways than one to deal with people who can’t keep in step with his orders, and I doubt you’d like what he could do. He might seem to be warm with the crew, but they follow his orders for a reason. Captain Ackles has a reputation that you know nothing about. Just remember that the next time you feel like taking a joy ride.”  
  
They continued on with the lesson until the ship’s lights dimmed. Jared undid the star charts and took them to the captain’s quarters, and he took a few extra minutes to pull out the captain’s bed and put fresh linens on it. It wouldn’t hurt to be seen doing a little extra in his duties for the next few days.  
  
He heard the bell and made his way to the galley. The men looked askance of him, and he knew that the dangerous stunt had made them all a little apprehensive about him, like he was suddenly something wild and uncontrolled. They watched the captain as well, waiting to see what he would do. Jared kept his eyes down at first, but when no one said anything, including Jensen, he began to relax a little.  
  
Jeff was telling a story again, about a fight back at the Bowben, he realized, and Jared smiled at him. Jeff returned it because the story was pretty good, a rowdy night and two rival crews in the same inn with only Jeff and Jared to keep the peace. He felt like Jeff was reiterating Jared’s strength and the wild nature that had gotten him into trouble so many times, and here, tonight, the other men seemed to be looking at him differently for it.  
  
Jeff finished the story and passed on another, though Jim was quick to fill in the quiet. Jared would have liked to have stayed for it because Jim rarely told a story about Jensen before he became captain, but Jeff caught his eye and he walked out onto the deck with the man, keeping an eye on the stairs in case the captain came out.  
  
“I’ve been watching you, Jared, trying to find a way to keep you out of trouble, but the captain seems to turn up every time you need something.”  
  
Jared gave a little bark of laughter. “Yeah, seems like.”  
  
“Look, I just…” Jeff ran a hand over his face and took a deep breath. “I’m not good at this, and you’ve known me long enough to know it. I just… what you did today? I was proud of you. I keep seeing you back down, and I know you’re trying to follow orders, but it wasn’t gonna stop until you did something.” Jared looked up, and Jeff smiled. “Though I expected you to deck Scroop, not to take a dive off the ship.”  
  
Jared smiled. “I saw you. You totally expected me to take a dive.”  
  
“I saw you shifting, and I’ve known you long enough to know where you were going after that,” Jeff admitted. “Damn near gave me a heart attach. You can think what you want about me, Jared, but I brought you out here because I thought it might be good for you. I don’t want to see you hurt. Damn near cheered when I saw you ahead of us, riding the wakes like you were born to it.”  
  
He dropped a heavy hand onto Jared’s shoulder, but it felt like approval, and it stung that it had to take place like this, so far from home, surrounded by people that he neither knew nor understood. “You’re doing a good job, Jared. Trust your instincts and you’ll do just fine out here, my boy.”  
  
Jared smiled, but as he did he caught a figure on the deck, watching. The captain didn’t say anything, but Jared patted Jeff’s hand lightly. “Thanks, Jeff,” he said, then he was walking after the captain, completely lost as to what he’d seen in the other man’s eyes.  
  
It was a short walk, but Jared’s mind wouldn’t stop turning. He’d mistrusted Jeff at every turn his whole life, and just when he was sure that Jeff couldn’t care less about him, he had to go do something like that. And of course, Jensen had to walk out and see it. Something in the captain’s eyes had let Jared know that he was walking on dangerous grounds, even if he didn’t know how dangerous.  
  
The door was already shut. Jared pressed his fingers to the pad, taking a deep breath as the door swooshed open. Jensen was standing over the bed, staring out into the stars. His jacket was thrown across the table, and Jared grabbed it immediately, hanging it in the captain’s closet in an effort to put off the confrontation. The set of the captain’s shoulders told him a storm was brewing, and he knew he was the cause of that. He was at the eye of it now, and he had no wish to be outside of that.  
  
Jensen didn’t say anything, so Jared began straightening the captain’s quarters. It didn’t take long, but Jared was glad for the distraction.

  
When there was nothing left to do, he turned to look at Jensen. Unmoving, hands still clasped tightly behind him, back rigid, and shoulders tight. The crux of his problem with the captain lay in this, his desire to run before the captain could turn his anger onto Jared, and his desire to reach out, pull the other man against him and try to comfort and soothe. If he could figure out which way he really felt, his life would be a lot easier.  
  
“Is there anything else you need, Captain?” he asked softly, feeling that anything less formal would be seen as disrespectful.  
  
“So you’re finished making busy work?”  
  
Jared swallowed against the lump in his throat as Jensen turned around and pinned him with a glare. He nodded, unable to say anything else. “You know how I feel about fighting on my ship.”  
  
Jensen walked towards him, and there was no hiding the fact that, as he circled, he was backing Jared up to the bed.  
  
“Yes, Captain.”  
  
“And yet you were fighting with a crew member.”  
  
“There was no fight, Captain.”  
  
“Don’t argue semantics with me, Mr. Padalecki. That the cook stopped the fight before it began does not mean there was no fight.”  
  
Jared took a deep breath, but he had to stand up for himself. Maybe if he did, Jensen would understand. “I understand how you feel, Captain, but I can’t back down every time they try to start a fight. Every time you show up and stop it, they continue to think I can’t fight my own battles.”  
  
“And yet you let me for this long.”  
  
“I was trying to follow orders, Captain,” he snapped back.  
  
He didn’t know if it was his tone or the words or if Jensen had just come to the end of his patience, but before he could respond, Jensen’s fist connected with his face, leaving him to stagger backwards, falling onto the bed.  
  
Jensen was on top of him before he could respond, his hand around Jared’s throat, tight enough that he was gulping for breath.   
  
“You know how I feel about fighting. I would rather see you start a hundred fights than watch you dive over the railing like that again,” he hissed at Jared. “You have no idea what I thought… no idea how much … Fuck!” he screamed as he released Jared and pushed away from him.  
  
Jared took in a deep breath, his hand coming up to massage his throat where the captain had been pressing. He needed ice for his face, was sure he’d ended up with a brilliant black eye and everyone would know where it had come from in the morning.  
  
“Get out. I don’t care if you sleep on the deck or in the galley, but get out. Whatever you do tomorrow, don’t let me see your face. You can come back after dinner, and we’ll see if I can handle the sight of you.”  
  
Jared stood up, unsure of what to do. “Jensen-”  
  
The other man was in his space before Jared realized he was moving. “You have no idea what I want to do to you right now, Jared, and there is not a man on this ship that would stop me. Get the hell out before I decide to take what I should have the first night you showed up in my quarters.”  
  
Jared took a step towards the door, and then he was practically running down the corridor. It wasn’t until he was on the open deck that he felt he could breathe again. He leaned against the railing, trying to stop the shaking in his hands. He didn’t know how long he waited for it to stop, but it wasn’t until Jeff came out later and led him down to the galley that he realized of all the people to get into a fight with on the ship, he’d somehow managed to pick one with the captain.

 

  
  
  
He spent the night in the galley with Jeff, neither man saying much of anything, but keeping each other company. He wasn’t entirely sure that Jensen hadn’t chewed Jeff out as well, but if he had Jeff didn’t say anything. In the morning, he took his food and ate in the cargo bay alongside the captain’s shuttle. It was a smaller vehicle but open air like the rest of the ship. There was a small room under deck for the captain’s bed and desk, but other than that, it was nothing more than a fancy getaway vehicle.  
  
He’d cleaned every inch of it, though, himself, and he felt a rush of pride as he began doing so again. It wasn’t something the captain had ordered him to do, but he knew Jensen had taken it out a few times to meet with other ships and the like.  
  
He worked over the riggings and sail, looking for damage and checking how they were stowed. When he was sure everything was in line with the shuttle, he made his way down. He got fresh linens and cleaned up the small cabin, restocking it and clearing all the trash out. When he was done, he still had a good portion of the day to kill, so he got out the tools and began to pry off the dead parasites from the hull. It was a pain in the ass, but the smaller the ship, the more they hampered its progress, and the last thing he wanted was for Jensen to have problems on the shuttle.  
  
He tried not to think too much as he worked. Jensen had sent him away, but even as he had done so, it seemed more like protection than punishment. He didn’t know what to make of it or any of the captain’s words.  
  
He didn’t realize how late it was until Jim showed up with a plate full of food. “Captain said to make sure you got something to eat. Seemed to know you wouldn’t be at the galley again.”  
  
“Wonder how.”  
  
Jim handed him a plate, and it was then Jared realized the first mate had one of his own. Jared smiled as he took a seat, looking up at the shuttle.  
  
“Good job of cleaning her up,” Jim offered.  
  
“Captain said not to show my face. I figured it was the safest place to be.”  
  
Jim nodded, indicating the black eye. “I can see that.”  
  
It seemed easier with Jim there suddenly. He was the only person on the crew who didn’t hate or torment Jared or confuse him to the point of anger or tears. “Yeah. Don’t suppose everyone else was as lucky, though.”  
  
“Captain kept to himself today, but no two ways about it. Everyone’s walking on eggshells waiting for him to erupt. Half of ‘em think he killed you and dumped you overboard last night, so when you do show up they’ll be a little happier. Doesn’t do anyone good when a captain kills his cabin boy.”  
  
Jared let out a huff. “Yeah, wouldn’t want anyone to have to take up that slack.”  
  
“Listen, boy, I know you’ve had a rough ride, but maybe you ought to take a look around. The men on this ship don’t give a good god damn if the captain kills you in your sleep and throws you overboard, except as an indication of how bad his mood is. The captain has a murderous temper, and only a few know why. I’m one of ‘em, and I can tell you, nothing you’ve been through holds a candle to it. Truth is, the captain has a heart bigger than any I seen, and it takes a battering ram to get under his skin, but you did somehow, and all that anger he’s got is because he screwed up with you.”  
  
Jared laughed, nearly spitting food all over Jim. “Screwed up with me? What’s to screw up? He tells me what to do and I do it.”  
  
“And yesterday?”  
  
Jared shook his head. “That had nothing to do with him. Or well… just the fact that I’ve been backing down since I got on-board because Jeff said no fighting and then the captain was always there to make sure it never really got anywhere.”  
  
“And if the captain was always there, why wasn’t he yesterday?”

Jared looked at him, knowing the puzzled expression that covered his face.  
  
“You ever think the captain showed up because you weren’t taking care of it yourself? Ever think he was just protecting you until you were able to take the fight yourself?”  
  
“He doesn’t allow fighting.”  
  
“No, he doesn’t, but that doesn’t mean that will stop them from happening. Trust me, Jared, he’s been in his own fair share of scrapes over the years. Never backed down from one that I ever saw. Think the captain would have been surprised by you if Morgan hadn’t stepped in.”  
  
“I’m not afraid to handle my own fights. I was just trying to do what everyone expected of me.”  
  
Jim smiled. “I get that. Only, the captain was expecting you to take care of your own business. And not a one of us expected you to jump overboard. Don’t think I’ve seen anyone move faster than the captain did to get to the railing, thinking you were lost to the pressure shields. Never seen him look as relieved as he did when he saw you on the sky surfer, nor as pissed when he stalked away.”  
  
“Yeah, well, I was always known for the stupid things I did. Jeff knew. Knew when I didn’t come up swinging what I was doing.”  
  
Jim nodded. “None of us expect you to take the abuse the boys were giving you, but they weren’t going to stop unless you showed some backbone. The captain only stepped in when you didn’t. He might have given you the devil to pay in punishment for a fight, but it probably would have been better than what’s going on now. He can deal with anger, but I don’t think I’ve seen the raw panic in him since his first storm, and even that paled to what I saw when he thought you’d jumped.”  
  
“It’s nice of you to say all this, Jim, but I’m not under his skin. The captain doesn’t like me, and he certainly isn’t all that worried about me,” he said.  
  
Jim shook his head, indicating the plate he was finishing up. “I didn’t bring this on my own. I would have, but I didn’t have to. The captain ordered his cabin boy to have dinner, and damn straight I was gonna find you and make you eat.”  
  
Jared sighed. “I get what you’re saying, Jim, but I don’t see it. Maybe sometimes I think he might be interested in something I say, but it’s normally about the crew or the ship. He doesn’t know the first thing about me.”  
  
“And you know about him?”  
  
“What?”  
  
“You think he accepted you on the ship without some sort of background? What do you know about him, though? Other than how mean and horrible he is?”  
  
“I never said that.” Jim looked at him, and he sighed. “Alright. I don’t know what else to think about him, though. He’s two different people, and I don’t know how to react to that.”  
  
“He has to be what his men expect. There was a time when the captain was in a position much like yours Jared, only he wasn’t as old as you, and the captain wasn’t as kind. He grew into the sailor he is the hard way. He’s hard to the core, because you can’t be a sailing man without that, can’t live through what he has without it, but it’s not all he is. These men, this crew, he can’t let down his guard though, not for anyone.” Jim took the plate from him and stood up. “Captain’s orders. Don’t go to his quarters until tomorrow morning.”  
  
Jared sighed. “Alright. Guess I’ll bunk down here,” he said as he looked up at the shuttle. “At least I got something done today. Don’t think the captain realized how much work she needed.”  
  
“Doubt it myself. He expects us to keep an eye on things like that, to take the initiative to fix it, but he’d have commented before too long, I suppose.”  
  
“I want him to like me, Jim. I … I don’t get it because I’ve never tried so hard to fit into someone else’s standards as I do his, and I feel like I fail every time.”  
  
“Maybe, Jared, you should just do things your way. Maybe if you stopped living up to his expectations, he could also.”  
  
It was the last thing he said before he walked away. Jared thought about it for a little while, but in the end, sleep was calling. He crawled back into the shuttle and let himself fall onto the soft bed. The room smelled like Jensen, even if the linen had been freshly changed. He stared up at the ceiling, though, missing the sounds Jensen made. He heard someone enter the cargo bay, heard the shift of feet on the shuttle’s deck, but he closed his eyes and didn’t look up. He knew who it was, and it only took a few minutes of Jensen close by before Jared passed into dreamless sleep.

 

  
  
  
He skipped the galley completely the next morning. Jim hadn't said when he should be in the captain’s quarters, so he decided to be there first thing. He sneaked in quietly, trying to get fresh clothes without waking the other man. He should have known better. He could feel eyes on him almost as soon as he started undressing. He didn’t stop, didn’t turn around to say anything either, but stripped out of his old clothes and pulled on the clean ones.  
  
When he turned around, Jensen was still in bed, but he was watching Jared. Jared came into the room and nodded. “Good morning, Captain. First mate said to report to you.”  
  
Jensen nodded. “Head to the galley. Bring back breakfast for two. And tell the cook to have my shuttle stocked with food for two for the day.”  
  
Jared nodded even though he was confused. He’d expected to have some sort of showdown with the captain this morning, at least some words about appropriate behavior on a ship, but there was nothing. Of course, the captain could be trying to ambush him with it. He wondered about what Jim had said, wondered about the fact that the captain had sent him food and had to have known he was in the shuttle the night before when he showed up.  
  
He pushed it all from his mind as he entered the galley. Jeff didn’t say anything, and outside of the orders, neither did Jared. He could tell Jeff was still fuming that Jared had almost gotten in a fight, and he was furious over his stunt over the railing, no matter that he’d said he was proud of him. Jeff’s approval was always laced with that sort of disapproval though. And it wasn’t like Jeff hadn’t known who he was before he'd brought him along.  
  
He took the food back to the captain’s quarters and straightened the man’s bed before sending it back into the wall as Jensen dressed. He tried to keep his eyes from straying too far, but it was hard not to watch the tight muscles and tanned, freckled skin. He had to jerk his eyes away more than once before the captain could notice, and he wasn’t too sure he was successful, but Jensen didn’t say anything.  
  
“Eat.” Jensen kicked out the other chair at the table, and Jared took a seat, not expecting to have to eat with Jensen. They were both quiet, but it wasn’t as tense as he'd expected it to be. It felt more like curiosity than anger that was settling between them.  
  
As Jensen threw the last of his roll onto the plate, he looked at Jared. “We’ll take the shuttle out today. Jim said you took good care of her yesterday. Time to take her for a test run, don’t you think?”  
  
“We?” Jared asked. He’d become paranoid, he knew, all the talk about space and what men could really get up to when they were out there, but the idea of being alone with the captain on the shuttle terrified him.  
  
“Yes. Let’s go.”  
  
Jensen didn’t wait for an answer, but Jared grabbed the tray and took it to the galley for drop off, then headed to the cargo bay. Jim was there, talking softly to the captain as Jared walked up. Jim gave him a warm smile, and Jensen indicated he should board the shuttle. “You have the ship, Jim. If you break Beauty, I’ll expect you to jump overboard as soon as I’m back.”  
  
“Nothing less, sir. If I may ask, where are you taking the shuttle?”  
  
“I have no idea.” Jensen said, surprising them both. “Since Mr. Padalecki seems to like the shuttle so much, it seemed time he got the feel of a keel underneath him. We’ll see where he leads. Expect us back in the morning.”  
  
“Aye, Captain.”  
  
Jared didn’t say anything, but as Jensen prepared the shuttle for departure he started barking out orders, and Jared flew to obey them. He’d never been asked to do half of them because on the Beauty they were part of a much larger ordeal, and no one had trusted him with that yet. It was easy here, though, to do what he was asked, and it wasn’t long before the shuttle was dropping from the ship and into open space on its own.  
  
He stood slightly behind the captain, awaiting the next order, happier than he could remember in a long time. He closed his eyes for a moment and let his fingers play over the rail, just feeling the warmth of her against the cool dark of the void around them.  
  
“She feels good, doesn’t she?” Jensen asked.  
  
Jared opened his eyes, and there was Jensen, standing right in front of him with the same warm smile Jared had seen the first day.  
  
“You want a go at her?”  
  
Jared couldn’t believe that Jensen was really offering to let him steer her. He nodded, not sure what his voice would betray. When Jensen stepped away, Jared stepped up to the helm without hesitation. He’d never been allowed to do this on the Beauty, but he knew how to fly.

He felt Jensen behind him, felt the soft warmth of his breath before he whispered, “You can try her out, Jared. We have nowhere particular to go.”  
  
Jared looked back and Jensen was almost too close. If he could have turned his head just a fraction more, they would have been kissing. Jensen took a step back, smiling. “Let’s see what you can do with her.”  
  
Jared smiled back at Jensen, smiled without fear or concern, and then he was looking out at the sky around them. He took her on a mostly straight course at first, getting a feel for her angles and where she lurched or leaned, learning her in the way he best knew how. It wasn’t long, though, before she was humming in his hand, an extension of himself. The Beauty was behind them somewhere in the distance, too far to be seen, and they were alone, and somehow it made him feel more liberated than he ever had before.  
  
He saw the coming wave, the currents of moons and planets pressing together, leaving a discolored wave of debris and space dust. He headed straight into it, laughing as he watched Jensen move to the front of the shuttle, like a kid ready to hit his first wake.  
  
They hit hard, but Jared turned the wheel with it, riding to the top of it. It was a slalom course as they ran from one side of the wave to the next, rising and cresting and crashing into the next one. The captain never looked back at Jared to see how he handled her, just threw his head back, arms extended, and over the crash and commotion, the wind carried his laughter back.  
  
Jared wasn’t sure how long he’d been at the helm, but the smile on his face wouldn’t disappear even though his hands and shoulders ached from the pressure and vibrations of the beast trying to break them. He could feel his strength giving way, could feel it when he wasn’t turning as quickly or as hard, and it was then that Jensen came back, a hand pressed to the wheel as he pushed Jared to the front to enjoy the rest of the ride. He gripped the fore railing and closed his eyes, and he could almost feel the heat of Jensen’s hands on the wheel as he drove them further into the maelstrom of waves.  
  
Eventually they were on to smoother sailing, and Jared turned back from the space around him to watch Jensen. The captain didn’t seem to realize he was being watched, too caught up in the pleasure of the ride. There was a large smile on his face, the likes of which Jared had never seen. His hands were relaxed on the wheel and his legs braced for anything that might come. Jared thought about Jim’s words, about what it must have been like, someone like Jensen with his intelligence and his spirit and his joy of the waves to be surrounded by men like Jeff, constantly trying to break him, to make him harder, or meaner, or something more like them.  
  
He felt his hands clench, and even though he knew he’d never be brave enough to ask, he’d never dare to make Jensen admit it, he knew where the man had to have started on a ship. He knew that most men started as a cabin boy, and he knew that Jensen had fought that as well as everything else they’d thrown his way.  
  
Jensen turned to look at him, and Jared couldn’t help but return the smile. His body thrummed with the adrenaline of the ship and the feel of space giving way before him. He didn’t understand that Jensen was turning the auto pilot on when he dropped his hand to the side, even though he knew it was there. He didn’t understand that Jensen was walking closer, even though he was watching him the entire time.

  
When Jensen pressed against him, Jared leaned back into the railing, one hand stretching out beside him, the other gripping at Jensen’s hip, pulling him closer.  
  
He wanted to lean in and press his lips to Jensen’s the way he’d been thinking of since the very first moment he saw him, but he couldn’t. He needed Jensen to be the one to do it, needed that permission before he could give in to his desires.  
  
Jensen watched him for a few minutes, his hands wrapping around to Jared’s back and pressing in, resting his head on Jared’s chest as they sped through the vast oceans of the galaxy.  
  
  
He had no idea how long they’d been going, how long he’d had Jensen pressed to him, but his whole body ached when Jensen pulled away. “Let’s hope Morgan stocked up like I ordered.”  
  
“Do you doubt it?” Jared asked.  
  
Jensen shook his head as he led Jared down to the cabin. “No. Morgan would follow me to the ends of the galaxy, so long as I was doing what he wanted.”  
  
“And if you weren’t?”  
  
Jensen looked over at Jared and shook his head. “Look, Jared, I know you like the guy, but I don’t. Don’t ask my opinion about him if you don’t want it.”  
  
Jared nodded. “Fair enough.” Because he didn’t really want to hear what Jensen thought about Jeff. He had enough conflict about the two of them that he didn’t need any more opinions floating around his head. Besides, Jensen had really given his opinion already, hadn’t he? None of the facts had changed since that first night. Jeff had handed him over to be used and abused as the captain wanted and he’d been relieved the next morning to see that he had.  
  
Jensen pulled him out of his thoughts by sliding the table out from the wall and setting out something to eat. Jared jumped to, trying to get ahead of the captain, feeling remiss in his duties even if Jensen hadn’t ordered him to take care of it.  
  
“Relax, Jared. Just a pleasure cruise. I didn’t bring you out with me to have you wait on me.”  
  
Jared’s curiosity got the best of him. “Why did you, then?”  
  
Jensen sighed as he dropped two bottles of beer on the table alongside the rest of the food. “Look… the other night… I handled that badly. I needed to make it up to you.”  
  
“And to get me away from the rest of the crew.”  
  
“That, too. They make things more complicated.” Jared thought that was the understatement of the year. “So I thought we could just relax today, enjoy time just the two of us, and I could see how you handled her,” he said, stroking the ship’s walls. “I’m impressed, in case you couldn’t tell. I don’t think I’ve been able to relax with someone else at the helm since I first learned to hold her.”  
  
“Thank you,” Jared said softly, unsure of the compliment.  
  
Jensen seemed to sense it, and he smiled again. “Food. And if we time it right, we can make it to the Alratian wraith migration.”  
  
“Are you serious?”  
  
Jensen pushed a plate at Jared and reached for his own. “Headed there now. Figured we’d have plenty of time to get there no matter where you took us.”  
  
The Alratian wraiths migrated every five years, and when they did, every waver and solar wind surfer in the galaxy was sure to be on Alrata. This would be better, though, because in deep space there would be only a few dedicated wavers to follow. They’d have it almost to themselves.  
  
Jared began eating quickly, not wanting to miss the migration, but then he looked up at Jensen, suddenly afraid he might seem unsocial for his display. He noticed that Jensen was hitting his food just as hard though. When Jensen winked at him and continued to eat, Jared realized Jensen was just as excited about this as he was. He tucked in, planning to be finished and back out on the deck with plenty of time to watch the wraiths from a distance.  


 

 

  
The sight was incredible: the white wraiths spun past them, like squids of old Earth, pulsing and pushing and sending shock waves back at them in the multitude. Jared took the helm again, spinning the shuttle in and out of the wakes, up into the heart of the mass, to the front of it, riding their coming wake like the foam in the ocean.  
  
He knew he couldn’t keep it up for too much longer before his muscles gave in, but then Jensen was behind him, one hand on his hip and the other on the wheel with him, steadying him and renewing his strength. He leaned slightly into the captain’s strength, and he could feel Jensen’s chuckle against his back. When he felt his legs about to give out, Jensen opened a chair on the deck, and Jared took it, amazed that Jensen was willing to let him stay in his weakness. It allowed him to watch the wraiths, though, and to take in Jensen as he dove through them in speeds Jared would have been afraid to try, risking the crush of pressure and dancing through the wraiths and waves like he could hear music no one else could.  
  
“Siren,” Jared said softly.  
  
Jensen looked over at Jared questioningly. Jared blushed, but he didn’t look away. “Sorry. Something I was told. That some thought you had siren blood in you, that they helped you navigate through the worst storms with their call.”  
  
Jensen laughed as he pulled them out of the dance, letting the wraiths get ahead of them until they were no more. The ship drifted slowly then, as Jensen set a slow course for what remained of the day. Jensen leaned in, his hands gripping the rail on either side of Jared’s head. “This is my Siren. It’s what I named her. She tells me where to go, and I follow.” He stood up then, offering a hand to Jared.  
  
Jared took it and allowed himself to be led down to the cabin, where Jensen pushed him onto the bed. Jared landed with a thud, his body tensing as Jensen slid up the bed beside him. “Shhh…” Jensen murmured as he pushed Jared onto his back. “Sleep. The wraiths beat the hell out of me.”  
  
“Thought you were a tough captain who could take anything without blinking an eye?”  
  
“Yeah, well, tell my crew I’m not and I’ll keelhaul you.”  
  
Jared fell asleep laughing, with Jensen lying at his side, one hand pressed over his heart.  
  
  
When he woke it was evening, according to the ship’s lighting. Jensen wasn’t in the cabin, so Jared sat up and stretched for a minute before heading back on deck. Jensen was sitting at the fore of the ship, his coat and shirt lost somewhere, and Jared couldn’t help but take in the sight of him.  
  
It made him feel overdressed, and he thought about stripping himself before Jensen turned his eyes back to him. Jared could feel the heat in his face at having been caught again. He looked down, closing his eyes against the guilt.  
  
He felt Jensen in front of him, though. “Jared.”  
  
He looked up because there was a command in that word, and he obeyed instinctively.  
  
“You don’t have to look away. When it’s just the two of us, I don’t mind the way you look at me,” Jensen said softly. He reached a hand up, brushing his thumb over Jared’s bottom lip. “I said I would never order you to my bed, but that doesn’t mean I would turn you away if you came willingly. It doesn’t mean I don’t want you there.”  
  
It was more than what Jared needed, and the words were barely out of Jensen’s mouth before he was crushing their lips together. Jensen surged up to meet him, his body pressing Jared back until he was against the cabin wall. His hands gripped Jared’s hips, pulling him as tight as he could get, and Jared grasped the back of Jensen’s neck, perfecting the angle of their lips. When Jensen’s tongue licked across his lips, he opened automatically to that order as well, letting the captain take what he wanted. He moaned into Jensen's mouth, the last couple month’s frustration and need escaping in a sound that none but Jensen would ever hear as he swallowed it.  
  
When Jensen broke the kiss, he looked up with more heat than Jared had ever seen in another’s eyes. “I want you in my bed, Jared. Say yes.”  
  
Jared nodded as he slid away from the wall, backing towards the stairs. “Yes.”  
  
Jensen’s eyes never left his as they made their way back to the bed. Part of Jared wanted to scream because he could have had this all that time, but he knew even as he thought it that it wasn’t true. They had to come down this path or he would always have been just a cabin boy, never anything more to Jensen.  
  
Jensen’s hands pulled at the fabric of his shirt, and then he was unbuttoning it in a fashion that was far too familiar but so much more intimate now. He let his own hands fall forward, tracing over the tanned skin that he’d been caught staring at far too often. Jensen's skin was soft except for his hands where calluses kept him hard, but there wasn’t an inch of fat on him, just hard muscle and soft skin and freckles Jared couldn’t wait to trace with his tongue.  
  
Jensen pulled Jared's shirt off his shoulders and stopped at the elbow like he normally did and Jared’s breath hitched, but then Jensen leaned up, brushing his lips over Jared’s as he slid the shirt all the way down. His hands went to Jared's pants then, opening and pressing them down until Jared was naked.  
  
Jensen got rid of his own pants then crawled on the bed, pulling Jared along with him. As the other man settled between his thighs, Jared leaned up for his lips again. “Please, Jensen.” He was begging for anything; he didn’t care so long as Jensen gave it to him.  
  
Jensen laughed against his lips and then started to thrust slowly against Jared’s body. It was maddening and insane and Jared never wanted him to stop, except that he wanted more. “Please…”  
  
Jensen bit at his bottom lip, then kissed him again. “Wanna hear you beg Jared, wanna hear you keening for me.”  
  
He pulled away slightly, but then Jared felt Jensen’s lips against his neck, trailing down his chest. If Jensen wanted keening, though, he certainly got it the moment his tongue flicked out, swiping the head of Jared's cock before swallowing him down.  
  
It didn’t take long to open him up, Jensen pushing his limits and Jared begging for more because he wanted to feel the stretch and burn, wanted to feel it in the morning when he woke so he knew it was real and not some space-induced delusion.  
  
“Open your eyes, Jared.” He heard the command and did as he was told, looking up at Jensen just as the captain slid into his body. He bit his bottom lip, and then Jensen was doing it for him, nibbling across his lip and soothing his tongue over it as he cried out in ecstasy.  “Wanted to hear you like this from the first minute I saw you.” He grabbed Jared’s hands and pressed them over his head, their fingers intertwined as he thrust brutally into Jared’s body. Jared pressed back into him, meeting every thrust.  
  
Jared wanted to tell him what he was feeling, that he’d never wanted anything more than to be held down that first night, to let Jensen take what he needed. He couldn’t admit it, though, not like this, not when Jensen was holding him down now and using him oh so fucking good, and it was everything he’d ever thought Jensen would be and more, because Jensen actually smiled and laughed and nipped and made Jared beg for more.  
  
When Jensen let go with one hand, it was only to wrap it around Jared’s cock, callused fingers dragging over his skin, and Jared was gone. He painted Jensen’s hand and stomach, and as he did he felt the captain’s hips stutter and falter as orgasm hit. He pushed up, swallowing the sob from Jensen’s throat, and didn’t stop kissing him until they were both shaking from the intensity.  
  
Jensen fell to the side of him, and Jared pulled him back against his chest. Jensen let himself be pulled, and then he was resting on Jared, one hand over his heart while Jared let his hands roam over Jensen’s lower back and arm.  
  
“I can’t bring myself to apologize for hitting you, but I know I should,” Jensen said, breaking the silence.  
  
“Why did you?”  
  
“You scared me. You dove and all I could think was you were gone, that I’d managed to push you to the point where you’d rather lose yourself to space than to face me.”  
  
Jared shook his head, a small smile on his lips. “I don’t know what Jeff told you about me when he brought me aboard, but I’ve always been known for taking the stupid way out of things. Sort of how I ended up out here.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
Jared shrugged. “Can’t breathe sometimes. If I get enough space around me, though, then I can let it out, let it go. Sounds stupid, but...”  
  
“Yeah, I get it.”  
  
“You do?”  
  
Jensen laughed. “You aren’t the only dangerous waver on the ship. Only difference is I’m the captain, so I have the Siren. Can’t do it on Beauty’s time.”  
  
He leaned up on one elbow and traced the dark bruise around Jared's eye before kissing it lightly. “I can’t… you get that I can’t be this on the ship, Jared.” Jared nodded because he felt like Jensen was trying to say something, and his voice would only interrupt it. “I heard you and Jim talking the other night. I never wanted you to think I didn’t care. You have no idea how hard it was not to tell you take a swing at Scroop or Roper or Morgan when they started giving you hell about this,” he said, his fingers trailing to the marks he had made on other nights. “I couldn’t, though. Needed to see you stand on your own, needed to know you had it in you.” He smiled as he looked back into Jared’s eyes. “Never knew you were a damn fool, throwing yourself overboard like that, then riding the wake before us? Just as crazy as I was, and I knew… second you walked in my quarters that I couldn’t keep to myself if I didn’t get you out of there. Swore I’d never force myself on you, but I’d never wanted anything the way I wanted you then.”  
  
“You did come to check up on me,” Jared finally managed.  
  
“What?”  
  
“Jim. He said you cared and I didn’t believe him, but last night you were there on the deck.”  
  
Jensen smiled. “Yeah, I was checking up on you. Hated the idea of you sleeping on the deck somewhere. When I saw you in my bed, though … I couldn’t get rid of the sight. I’d planned on sailing out alone today for this, but I knew then it was the right thing to do, take you with me and work this out without the others.”  
  
“What are they going to expect when we get back?” he asked.  
  
Jensen shrugged as he turned away from Jared. “The same as always. Bruises and more blushing from you.”  
  
Jared slid in behind him and kissed the back of his neck. “Good thing we have the rest of the night for you to mark me, then.”  
  
Jensen looked over his shoulder at Jared, a small smile pulling at his lips. “You don’t care what they think about that?”  
  
“So long as you and I know, I couldn’t care less what they think.”  
  
Jensen took a deep breath, shifting to bring their lips together. “Sleep, Jared. Need to sleep again, then we’ll see about those marks you’re so looking forward to.”  
  
Jared had barely closed his eyes before he was asleep with the captain safely tucked into his arms.  


 

 

Things changed on the ship for Jared, but most of it looked the same. The other men gave him more distance and respect, not sure what to expect from him anymore. He wasn’t the safe cabin boy they’d thought he was, the one who smiled often and laughed at their jokes but never took offense at their crass comments. He started showing his displeasure for some of them, and the more timid men stopped.  
  
Jeff watched Jared with an unreadable expression, and Jared knew he didn’t like the change. Jim was more relaxed and that was a good indication about the captain as well. He had half a mind to ask the first mate if he’d said something to Jensen to start them on this path to begin with, but he didn’t know how to ask without admitting anything about his and Jensen’s relationship, and that was a betrayal he refused to give the captain.  
  
“Captain needs to see us,” Jeff said, coming up behind Jared as he was going over more charts with Jacobson. Jared frowned because he hadn’t expected to see Jensen at all that morning, but Jeff was looking at him impatiently, and Jared followed quickly.  
  
He didn’t offer to open the door for Jeff like he could have, and he doubted the man knew he had all out access to the captain’s quarters, even if they were his own. They had to wait until Jensen came to the door.  
  
“Morgan,” Jensen said, stepping aside to let Jeff and Jared in. “I wasn’t aware you needed a cabin boy to tell you where you wanted to go.”  
  
Jeff sputtered for a second, and Jared had to bite his lower lip and look down to keep from giving away his amusement.  
  
“Captain, I told you when I hired you that I would hand over the map when we were close, and it’s time.”  
  
“Jeff? You… you hired the Beauty?”  
  
“You didn’t know?” Jensen fired back, looking between Jeff and Jared quickly.  
  
It made sense then, why Jensen had hated what Jeff did to Jared, because if Jeff was funding the expedition there was no reason at all for Jared to be a cabin boy or anything else but a passenger. And he’d thought Jared had known all along.  
  
“I need your necklace, Jared.”  
  
“What?” he said, clutching the necklace to his chest. He never took it off, not since the day it had arrived in the mail, the last of his father’s possessions he would ever receive, with only a small warning attached: _Trust no man of the beast._ “No.”  
  
“Jared, it’s the key to everything. It’s a treasure map to Flint’s treasure trove.”  
  
“Flint?” Jensen barked in disbelief.  
  
“Yes, Captain Flint. That necklace is the key to finding the loot of a thousand worlds. His first mate Billy Bones was a good man, a fine sailor, and after Flint’s death he came aboard the Haven. Captain Cameron took him in, and it was then the stories began. Said he had a map to the treasure one night, after too much drink. He and Padi got close, and after the mutiny Padi left for another ship. Wasn’t until years later that I realized he’d send the map on to his son before his passing.”  
  
Jensen nodded as he listened. “So you were there for Cameron’s mutiny?”  
  
“I’m a simple cook,” Morgan said with his hands raised. “I was there, but there was nothing for a man like me to do. I left the service after that, though, looking to settle, and found myself giving my condolences to Padi’s family. Was as good a place as any to settle in.”  
  
“And my necklace?” Jared interjected. He didn’t know what they were talking about, and he was glad Jeff didn’t know Jensen the way he did, or he’d see the anger in his eyes just as clearly.  
  
“I heard the pirates, Jared, heard them say it was an heirloom map, and then I realized it was with you all that time.”  
  
“And you didn’t back me up with the police?” Jared demanded.  
  
“I got you out of trouble, Jared, but I couldn’t tell them what it was all about. They’d want a part of it too. It’s Flint’s treasure, Jared! The biggest payoff in history! Do you have any idea what I’d do to get close to that?”  
  
“Yeah, you’d fucking sell me to the captain of the ship! You’d leave me to be abused by the crew! And now you want me to hand over a treasure map that you have no right to?”  
  
He heard the weapon cock before he realized Jeff had it pointed at him.  
  
“Yeah, Jared. I really do.”  
  
Jared hesitated. Everything in him wanted to do something stupid again, like refuse and see what Jeff would do to him.  
  
“Jared, give him the map. You really don’t know what that man is capable of.”  
  
He took a deep breath but even as he was trying to understand why Jensen wanted him to hand it over, he was pulling it over his neck.  
  
“Good idea, Captain Ackles,” Jeff said with a smile as he took a step back, the necklace in his hand. “I remember a much different Jensen Ackles.” Jeff’s voice was cruel as he looked past Jared to Jensen. “I remember your screams in the night, remember the way Captain Cameron would pass his cabin boy to his men. Kept waiting for you to turn Jared over, but you never did. I kept a watch, you know. Over the years, watched as you and the first mate made your way, watched how you worked your way into the right crews and killed every one of the men that was left alive after the mutiny. Watched you kill every hand that ever touched you.”  
  
“Not every hand. You went to land,” Jensen sneered. The implication staggered Jared, that Jeff could possibly hurt Jensen, that Jensen had been on a murderous quest all these years. He could see it in both men and he found himself unbelieving as well.  
  
Jeff smirked. “I followed the only link I had to the map, and I bided my time. You made my job easier, actually, killing off anyone else who remembered Billy Bones.”  
  
“Jared… remember what I said about dangerous wavers?”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Do something stupid.”  
  
He didn’t know how to feel about everything that had been said, but he trusted Jensen. At his words, they both jumped, Jared going for the map as he swung away to the right. Jensen had dodged to the left, but pushed off the wall and back onto Morgan, knocking the gun from his hand as he yelled for Jared.  
  
“Jensen! Jump!”  
  
Jared threw himself out the front window, diving headfirst, hands open wide as he watched the captain’s shuttle appear before him. He grabbed the rope of the mast and hung on for dear life as he listened for Jensen.  
  
He heard more glass breaking, and he looked up in time to see Jensen’s incredible leap, how he grasped the line as his weight dragged it to the deck. Jared climbed to the center of the mast and worked his way down, but the shuttle was already speeding away.  
  
“I’m coming for you, Jared!” Jeff screamed from the wreckage of the window above him. Jared didn’t answer, but shimmied down the mast to find Jim at the controls.  
  
“It’s got to be the planet, because he knew what he was looking for,” Jensen was saying to Jim.  
  
Jim looked up at Jared and smiled. “Nice to know we got to keep the cabin boy.”  
  
Jensen winked at Jared. “Kinda attached to him.”  
  
Jared’s mouth dropped open. Jensen had never said anything of the sort in front of any of the men, but then again, from what he’d just heard, Jim wasn’t just another crewman to Jensen, either.  
  
“What now? I’ve known Jeff a long time. He won’t stop.” He didn’t understand everything that had just happened, but as he’d seen Jeff screaming out from the captain’s cabin he’d also noticed Scroop at the helm and it didn’t take a genius to move from that to mutiny.  
  
Jensen’s eyes were dark and cold as he looked at Jared. “I’ve known him a lot longer. I know he won’t, so we’re going to find what he’s looking for first.”  
  
“How?”  
  
“Sorry, boy, but I think we need to look at that map,” Jim said.  
  
Jared sighed, but he handed the necklace to Jensen. Jensen passed it back to Jim and looked back at the Beauty. “I’ll kill him if he hurts my ship,” he muttered.  
  
Jim was looking at the necklace, but he responded without hesitation, “Gonna kill him no matter what he does, remember? Now how long before he gets the guns on us?”  
  
Jared flinched at the cold way they spoke about killing Jeff, but then Jared remembered his own fear the first night on the Beauty, and he knew Jensen had been harshly used by the former captain. He feared that Jeff had been a part of it too and the heavens help him, he didn’t think he would stop Jensen if he tried to hurt the pirate. He couldn’t even find it in himself to blame him.  
  
“Pulling them out now. Give me a heading, old man, or this might become a successful mutiny.”  
  
“Need your hand, Jared. It’s gonna hurt a bit, but I figure you’re man enough to handle that by now,” he said, pulling a knife out and slicing across Jared’s palm. Jared grit his teeth but didn’t make any other noise. “Huh, always thought you’d turn out to be a screamer, boy.”  
  
“No, but he begs really pretty.”  
  
Jared blushed and Jim cursed, but Jensen was laughing as he steered the shuttle, and there was something wild about him that made Jared forget about everything else.  
  
“Got it!” Jim placed the necklace on the blood that welled up, and as soon as it was coated a light came from it, a full projection of the planet hovered above Jared’s hand. “Southern hemisphere!”  
  
Jared felt the Siren shift under them, and he reached his other hand out, patting her lightly. “Come on, baby, get us there.”  
  
“Small set of islands in the middle of nowhere,” Jim continued as the map refocused.  
  
“Coordinates, Jim!”  
  
“Working on it!”  
  
The shuttle shuttered under them then as a blast rocked through the sail. They lurched to the side, Jensen screaming out orders, Jim and Jared both rushing to follow them, trying to compensate for the hole in the sail as they entered the upper atmosphere.  
  
“Hang on!”  
  
Another blast blew through, missing them as Jensen rolled the ship away from it. They were flying blind, though, and Jared knew they needed to find the treasure. He left Jim to stand at the wheel with Jensen, opening his palm to get the map to start up again. It refocused as they got close, and then in the distance Jared could see the right configuration of islands. “There!”  
  
“Got it! We’re going to take her down. She can’t take more hits, and we need to get Morgan off my ship!”  
  
They all prepared for the landing, which went far better than Jared would have thought possible. He knew that shuttles were made to land in water as well as to fly in space, but he’d never actually seen it before.  
  
Jim let out a deep breath, and Jared knew that he hadn’t seen one land that well either. Jensen was already moving, though, grabbing a bag of food and water and pulling out the meager amount of weapons they kept on the shuttle.  
  
“You didn’t happen to charge these up the other day, did you?” Jensen asked Jared as Jim lowered himself into the waist deep water and wadded into shore.  
  
“Yeah, of course I did.”  
  
“I could kiss you right now,” Jensen said, then smiled as he pulled Jared’s lips to his to do just that.  
  
He dropped over the side then, and Jared only had a moment to laugh before he was following. As much as Jared had always thought he had a strange urge to laugh when things got stressful, he’d met his match in Captain Ackles.  
  
They’d taken a small trail through the forest and worked their way in the general direction of the treasure before they heard the Beauty’s other shuttle land not too far from them. “We need to find a place to make a stand,” Jensen said softly. “They can only track us so far with their sensors, but if we don’t find the treasure and get out soon, Morgan will just prep the Beauty and bring her into the upper atmosphere and find us that way.”  
  
“Yeah. Alright,” Jared said, taking a deep breath. He opened his hand again, trying to see if he could make the map show him the local terrain. To his surprise, it answered his unspoken request.  
  
“Nice show, Padi.”  
  
Jared didn’t answer, couldn’t answer around the lump in his throat. No one had ever called him that. That Jim, who apparently had known his father, did meant more than he could say.  
  
“Wait… you both knew my father,” Jared said suddenly.  
  
“Yeah.” Jensen answered with a nod. “He left the ship right after Jim and I, trying to get away from the whole murderous crew. Only one I was looking for after I got free.  Tell you what Jared, we get out of this alive, I’ll tell you everything you want to know, every detail I can remember,” Jensen assured him as he poured over the map.  
  
Finally, Jensen pointed to an area. “Can you show that clearer?”  
  
“Let’s see.” Again, the map responded to his request. In the area was a stone monolith that had been carved hollow over time. “There. It’s the only thing I can see that we could get to in time.”  
  
“Let’s get moving then, boys,” Jim piped in, pressing ahead of them.

 

 

  
  
They had very little time to scout out the area. Jim kept an eye out for the ship’s men as they approached, and it was Jensen who found a small trail that looked like it would take him around their path and back to the other side.  
  
“Jim, I want you to take the other path. Get past the others and back to the Beauty. They couldn’t have left more than three or four men to hold her. Get her free, Jim.”  
  
Jim looked at him for a moment, but nodded before looking back at Jared. “You take care of him, Jared. I’ve kept him safe all these years; don’t you let me down now.”  
  
Jared shook his head. “I won’t.”  
  
They watched Jim head out the back way and then they were setting themselves up for the night. They didn’t know what would happen next. It didn’t take long before Jensen noticed a white flag being waved down the pathway though. They could see clearly where Jeff and the men were watching.  
  
“We can’t hold here,” Jared said softly.  
  
“No, we can’t. We can only hope to get free and get back to the Beauty before they do.”  
  
“And hope Jim got her free.”  
  
“Jim would die before he’d see her in the hands of a pirate like Morgan.”  
  
Jared nodded. “So what now?”  
  
“We talk to Morgan and see what he wants. Then we play along until we can get free.”  
  
“Jared!” They heard Morgan calling, and Jared felt Jensen tense beside him. “I only want to talk to you, lad!”  
  
Jared sighed, but he reached over his head and pulled off his necklace, placing it in Jensen’s hand. “Keep it for me.”  
  
“Be careful.”  
  
Jared leaned in, brushing his lips over Jensen’s softly. “Not doing anything stupid unless you’re there to help.”  
  
Jensen laughed lightly, then pushed Jared towards the opening. Jared walked out, following the path to where Jeff was waiting halfway down.  
  
“What do you want, Jeff?”  
  
“Just the treasure, Jared. Give me that and we don’t have any problems here.”  
  
Jared smiled. “You think I’m going to believe that now?”  
  
“I like you, Jared, I always have. Looked out for you as best as an old pirate could, you and your mom. Think about it—give me the map and the treasure is part yours. I never intended to keep you from your share. Just give me the map and those two, and we’ll have the Beauty and the entire galaxy to sail.” Jeff smiled warmly at him. “I know you have the beast in your blood, Jared, knew it when I met you. We can have it all.”  
  
Jared closed his eyes, the image of flying through space on the Beauty filled his mind, but nothing Jeff could offer him meant anything without Jensen.  
  
“No.”  
  
Jeff glowered then, his body a moment from violence as he pulled his weapon out. The pistol was pointed straight at Jared's heart as Jeff shook his head. “I’m disappointed in you, Jared.”  
  
“Likewise.”  
  
“Ackles!” Jeff screamed up to their hiding spot. “If you don’t come out, I’ll make sure your cabin boy gets a good show of it before I send him into the ethereal planes.” Jared knew what he meant, but Jeff continued, “We’ll give him a show off, as good as Captain Cameron ever gave you.”  
  
It was unnecessary because Jensen was always going to come out, they both knew it when Jared had walked out, but Jeff was cruel in ways Jared was just now beginning to understand.  
  
As the captain joined then, the gun flicked over to Jensen, but Jared moved with it, keeping himself between them. “You hurt him and I swear I’ll set the map to planet wide before you can stop me.”  
  
“You think you can, huh?”  
  
Jared didn’t answer, but Jeff could read him well enough to know he was serious. He nodded, but he kept his gun up until they were surrounded by the others. “Well then, Jared, let’s see where we get to next.”  
  
Jensen pulled the necklace over his head, and Jared took it, pressing it to his palm to open the wound a little more. When he opened his hand, he thought of the map pointing them in the right direction but not the actual location. He let out a relieved breath as it did, Jensen nodding encouragement to him before they were caught in the middle of the pirates, moving to follow the direction the map pointed.  
  
  
It didn’t take long for them to find the spot the map said the treasure was, but instead of a treasure trove, they were on the edge of a cliff. “Jared, I told you I’d keep your captain safe if you gave me the treasure. It’s not looking so good right now for him.”  
  
Jensen’s eyes were hard as he looked at Jeff, but he was still calm, and something in that calmed Jared as well. “Wait, there has to be something we’re missing.”  
  
“No shit. How about my treasure?”  
  
Jared ignored him, looking at the map in his hand, trying to decipher anything that might show what he’d done wrong.  
  
“Back off him,” he heard Jensen say behind him, and Jared knew he was talking to Jeff. He heard Jeff’s muted grunt, and then he was being turned, grabbing for Jensen as he was pushed into him. They both tumbled to the ground together, and as the moss stained their skin they both looked up, smiling.  
  
“What are we looking for?” Jared asked.  
  
“Not a clue, but we should know it when we see it.”  
  
“What are you two doing?” Jeff demanded.  
  
“This is all metal. The moss isn’t clinging like it should if this were dirt,” Jensen said as he continued to push through the green. A minute later, he smiled. “Got it. Jared, I think we need the necklace again.”  
  
Jared handed it over, and when Jensen stuck the necklace in the cleft he’d found, the whole area began to light up under their feet. A platform rose with the key at its center. Jared stepped forward and turned it, and as he did so, five lines of power surged from the valley beneath them and rushed to the platform.  
  
A diagram of the galaxy was displayed over the panel, and a huge portal opened up before them. “This is how Flint got his treasure,” Jensen said in awe at Jared’s side.  
  
“Yeah, but where did he put it?” Jeff said, pushing them away.  
  
They watched in fascination as the portal opened on world after world, following whatever information Jeff put into it. He whirled on Jensen then, gun in his face. “Fix it or your captain dies right here.”  
  
“Stop it, Jeff! I told you I’d help, just so long as he’s safe.”  
  
“Then get me my treasure!” he screamed.  
  
Jared was shaking in rage, but Jensen moved to his side and he turned away, going back to the console that had opened. He looked at it for another moment before looking back at Jensen. “It can’t be that easy, can it?”  
  
“The best place to hide something is where you’d never expect it.”  
  
Jared nodded, then programmed the portal for the planet they were standing on. Instead of opening onto a field, it opened into a huge cavern. It was filled with gold and treasure, and there was more than any of them could think to carry out in a lifetime.  
  
“By the stars…” He heard Jeff’s words as he walked into the portal. The other men were in as much awe. The mechanism that created the portal was also its treasure cove. The machine whirled loudly around them, and it was when everyone else was focused on treasure that Jensen poked Jared to get his attention. “The shuttle.” He nodded, and Jared saw an old beat up ship just to the side of the entrance.  
  
“Think we can ...”  
  
“Gotta try,” was all Jensen said as he and Jared quickly made their way to it.  
  
It wasn’t in bad shape considering how old it was, but it was the old part that was their largest problem.  
  
“We just need her to get to Beauty,” Jensen reminded him as they started tearing at panels to see what was still intact and what they needed to do.  
  
“You think Jim…”  
  
“Yeah, I do. So we just need to get to him and we’ll be fine.”  
  
“Yeah. Looks like navigation is still good.”  
  
“Engines need some work, but only internal. Sensors are online and showing everything else good to go,” Jensen answered.  
  
He barely had the words out before there was a large explosion from inside the cavern. Jensen started to pull out from under the panel, but Jared stopped him. “Looks like a booby trap on Flint’s treasure. I think we just got a deadline.”  
  
Jensen didn’t answer, but kept going. Jared could see more explosions outside the shuttle, in the center of the cavern, and he realized then that the machinery itself was backfiring into the cavern. “Anytime, Jensen. He rigged this whole place to go.”  
  
“Should have known you’d find a way to escape, Jensen,” Jeff said from the doorway. Jensen started to get up, but Jeff had the gun on him.  
  
“Just get us out of here, Jensen, and we’ll get along just fine.”  
  
“Jensen, we’re out of time.”  
  
“Fine!” Jensen ground out as he slipped back under but Jared could hear the murder in his voice. The engines tried to sputter to life twice. On the third attempt they whirled to, breathing life into the shuttle. Jensen was up immediately, his hands moving over the digital displays as easily as they had the antique-designed gears of the Beauty. “We’re not going to make it.”  
  
“What?” Jeff demanded.  
  
“We can’t make it off planet. The shuttle won’t make it in time.”  
  
“Damn you, yes it will!” Jeff said, cocking the gun again.  
  
Jared reacted, not thinking of anything but getting Jeff to stop pointing the gun at Jensen. Jeff wasn’t expecting the blow, and it knocked him off his feet. The ship lurched with them as an explosion erupted close to them, and Jared felt a hand on his wrist, helping him steady himself while Jeff was still floundering.  
  
“Doing something stupid, Jensen?”  
  
“Got you here, might as well,” he said, then he flipped the shuttle on her side as they flew from the cavern and out to the open atmosphere.

  
Jeff was caught near the open door of the shuttle, barely holding on. Jared saw something behind Jeff and knew he had to take his chance. He had to make sure Jeff couldn’t hurt Jensen again. He took one look back, saw the way Jensen’s widened, and then Jared was laughing as he took off, launching himself at the man who had lied to him his entire life.  
  
Jeff wasn’t expecting that either, and he went flying out of the shuttle, trying desperately to hold onto anything, but nothing came to him. Jared knew what he was doing, though, just as he had the first time he’d thrown himself from the Beauty. His hands opened wide as he reached for lines, pulling and burning as he managed to get a line on the Beauty’s sails.  
  
He heard yells from above and below and knew that Jim and Jensen were both screaming. Jared’s hand ached as he made his way down the ship’s mast, watching Jim as he settled on the ground. “Jensen?”  
  
The shuttle was already docked in the cargo bay, and Jensen was running up the stairs and onto the deck. “Here!”  
  
“That’s great. We can all die together, then.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Don’t know what they did to her, but I can’t get her fast enough to get out of the blast radius. When this planet blows, we’re blowing with it.”  
  
“No. No…” Jensen’s eyes flared in anger, and Jared nodded in agreement. They couldn’t let it end there.  
  
“No. We’ll use the portal.”  
  
Jensen smiled, and it was dangerous and wild and beautiful. “The space port.”  
  
They were both launching themselves over the side then, landing steadily on the sky surfer. Jim ran to the side and looked down at them.  
  
“Turn her around, Jim. Get her through the portal. We’ll have her switched before you get there!”  
  
“Not leaving without you, Jen!” Jim yelled.  
  
“You get Beauty to the other side, Jim! That’s an order!”  
  
Jim didn’t answer, but Jared was already throwing the sky surfer forward.  
  
“I’ll jump off and get it reprogrammed. You just come back and get me,” Jensen said as they sped back to the portal.  
  
Jared wanted to argue, but Jensen knew the technology better than he did. He could make sure Jensen was safe through the portal before it all blew, though. He’d made a promise to Jim, and he wasn’t going to screw that up. Jensen was too important to them both.  
  
He felt Jensen grip his hand as he steered, and as they got to the control panel Jared slowed as much as he could. Jensen let go and jumped. Jared watched even as he was turning the surfer in a wide arch as Jensen rolled over the ground and scrambled to his feet to make it to the panel. His fingers flew over the mechanism as he tried to open the right galaxy, and then it was there, the space port Jared had grown up looking at.  
  
He watched as the Beauty’s bow made it through the portal and saw Jim screaming at them both, though his words were lost in the explosions around them.  
  
He was almost on Jensen when the ground gave a sickening crack and the earth underneath him gave way. The control panel fell from the platform, and Jensen with it.  
  
“Jensen!”  
  
He dove without thinking, raced for the captain, and even as he was falling Jensen was reaching out, grabbing for roots and clinging vines to slow his descent.  
  
The other man saw him coming, and then there was no way to stop it. Jared got underneath him, and the impact knocked them both off the surfer. Jared was falling from it, unable to stop himself, but then Jensen’s hand was around his wrist, his other on the handle as they plummeted. Jared grappled for the other handle, crawling up Jensen until he could reach it. He balanced it out with short thruster bursts until Jensen was up behind him, and then he was flying up out of the precipice again. They heard the last of the explosions and saw the way the portal shimmered before them, and Jared could only speed the surfer beyond its limitations and hope it got them through in time.  
They burst through the portal into the sky above the space port, fire trailing them as the planet behind them blew, the portal winking out seconds later.  
  
He could see Jim at the stern of the ship, his expression astonished, and then he heard the clear laughter as he brought a hand to cover his face.  
  
Jared looked back at Jensen and was pressed forward into the sail, Jensen kissing him senseless as they rode to the front of the Beauty.  
  
“Do that again and I might kill you,” Jensen said with a laugh.  
  
Jared couldn’t help but return it, his heart racing too fast to count. He rode the sky surfer in front of the ship, taking her wake and letting his heart speed along with it, Jensen pressed to his side and laughing like a madman into his skin.

 

  
  
What they hadn’t thought of when they’d set the portal to open over the space port, though, was the way the authorities had taken them. Jim, Jared, and Jensen were all separated from one another almost as soon as they’d gotten on-board. Jared was released the soonest; as the cabin boy he had no responsibility in the events, and he’d been released to his mother two days after they arrived.  
  
He’d been given a few minutes then to see Jensen, telling them that he had to make sure his captain was alright. A few men eyed him funny, and he was sure they were sea dogs as well, men expecting a cabin boy to hate the man he’d been stuck with during the duration of this stay. They were intrigued at Jared’s request and had let him go.  
  
It wasn’t much time and there was no privacy, but Jensen told Jared to go back home, to settle his life, and when it was time, Jensen would be back.  
  


 

The Academy came knocking three months later while Jared was still waiting for Jensen. The Benbow was under construction, made possible by Jeff. His mother had actually been listed as Jeff’s beneficiary. Jared felt guilty about that until he remembered the way Jeff had pointed a gun at Jensen and how he’d sold Jared out when he didn’t have to, just to keep his cover.  
  
She owned Jeff’s house, but Jared had already convinced her to sell it off and purchase a home or construct one adjacent to the Benbow. He had the money, once they’d settled the treasure claim. Jared hadn’t expected anything, but Jim had shown up with a recommendation to the Academy and a third of what treasure had been on the shuttle when he and Jensen had flown it out.  
  
When the Academy came to call, it was with Jim and Jensen’s recommendations, and it was the captain’s words that made him think seriously about it. Jensen was sending a message, and one Jared understood well enough. He signed up on the fast track, although most of his counselors tried to stop him. Jared had flashed a little money at the Academy, though, and if he wanted to fail quickly, as his record indicated he would, they were willing to let him try. They were also willing to take the word of the men who had discovered Flint’s trove, now the galaxy’s most popular sailors, that Jared could handle it.  
  
They said he could make it in four years if he set his sights on it. The fast track said three and a half. He finished in three, breezing through most of it with a smile and Jim or Jensen’s voice in the back of his head when a teacher would try to explain something they’d already taught him.  
  
Graduation was about as mind numbing as Jared always thought it would be. His mother was in the audience, though, and the fact that he managed to clean up his act and make it this far made him proud that she was there watching.  
  
Steve sat on one side of him, a friend from the day he found out Jared had actually been on one of the newer ships with the antique style design. He was at the Academy to design ships, not fly them, and Jared had given him as much detail as he felt he could about the Beauty.  
  
“What is that?” Steve asked as the sky roared around them.  
  
Jared stood with the rest of his graduating class, grinning as the ship passed overhead. It wasn’t something you did during a ceremony; in fact, they weren’t on a supply or travel route of any kind in the field, but Jared was laughing anyway.  
  
“That, Steve, is the R.L.S. Beauty.”  
  
“Really? Why is it here?”  
  
Jared’s grin grew as the announcer tried to get everyone under control in the wake of the Beauty’s streak through the ceremony. “Because it’s time.”  


  
  
As soon as they had tossed their caps, Jared was restless to run. He kissed his mother, and Steve was there for pictures, but Jared’s mother recognized his need to move. “Jared, what’s gotten over you?”  
  
“Probably has something to do with our arrival.” He heard a familiar voice from behind the others and smiled as Jim stepped out. He grabbed the man into a hug, and Jim returned it warmly. “Knew you’d manage it, even if you were trying to beat the record for fastest completion.”  
  
Jared laughed. “Mom, this is Jim, the first mate of the Beauty.”  
  
“Bite your tongue. Captain of the Dreamer. Captain Ackles is looking for a new first mate these days.”  
  
Jared gaped, and Jim laughed. “About time I moved on anyway. Been looking after that boy way too long.”  
  
“Captain Beaver?” Steve asked from beside Jared. Jared laughed because he didn’t know what else to do. “Steve, meet Jim. Jim, my roommate at the Academy. Jim was the first mate on the Beauty when I was on her.”  
  
“You mean you didn’t make all that up?”  
  
“Nope. And I didn’t even tell you the exciting parts. Jim here is excellent with a story, though.”  
  
“I don’t know about that.”  
  
“I do, and I insist. You have to go to the Benbow to see what we were able to do with her.”  
  
“And to entertain?”  
  
“Well, I plan on being busy.”  
  
“Wait, where are you going, Jared?” his mother finally interrupted.  
  
Jared didn’t answer, but he heard Jim laugh. “I think he’s finding his way home.”

 

  
  
He took a deep breath as he sat at the bottom of the entryway, wondering what it would be like to step aboard her again, what it would feel like to have his hands on her rails with the open sky around them. He pressed his fingers to the entry pad, expecting nothing to happen, but the door opened with a small click.  
  
He tried to tell himself it was stupid to get excited about that because they probably just hadn’t erased his fingerprints from the access panels, but it was a lie he couldn’t believe. Jim and Jensen were too careful for something like that.  
  
He walked up into the quiet of the ship, remembering the chaotic energy of it the first day. A few crewmen were around, but none of them tried to stop him. In fact, he got warm smiles and encouraging glances as he made his way across the deck and began traveling the hallways.  
  
He stood outside the captain’s quarters for a few minutes, trying to get up the nerve to knock, but in the end he knew one way to find out if Jensen still wanted him there. He pressed his fingers to the door pad and nearly cried out in surprise as it opened.  
  
The room was the same as it had been the many times he’d walked in before, including the captain sitting at the desk with his coat thrown over the chair, his boots kicked off to the side.  
  
“Your cabin boy is in serious derelict of his duties,” he said softly.  
  
He stood tall, as Jensen looked up at him, letting him take a long minute to take him in, uniform and all. He was nervous; after all, they’d only been together a few times in the short time they’d had, and he’d been away at the Academy for three years. But then Jensen stood up, and his eyes looked wild, like Jared was all the space he needed to breathe.  
  
Their lips crashed together, and it was everything Jared remembered, everything he’d wanted it to be. They didn’t come up for air for something as stupid as hellos, but for kisses and bites and stripping each other of their clothes as the fell onto the bed that Jensen had already pulled out.  
  
It wasn’t until they’d tasted and touched and fallen sated next to one another that words even came back into thought.  
  
Jared stretched a hand up to Jensen’s face, cupping it and bringing him in for another kiss. Jensen was up on one elbow and allowed Jared to direct him, smiling as they pulled apart. “You know I wasn’t really here for a new cabin boy,” he teased lightly.  
  
Jared laughed because he could. The feel of the Beauty was so different now, like home and freedom and everything he’d ever needed. “Well… I hear you’re looking for a first mate.”  
  
Jensen’s smile grew brighter, and so did Jared’s, because he’d always known he’d been reading those recommendations right, but it wasn’t until now that he had the confirmation of it.  
  
“I did have someone in mind.”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Crazy kid I met once. Had a habit of throwing himself over things into space.”  
  
“I met someone like that once.”  
  
“Yeah. So what do you say?”  
  
“I’m all yours, Captain Ackles.”  
  
Jensen laughed as he rolled on top of Jared. “Why yes, Mr. Padalecki, it looks like you are.”

 

 

 

 


	2. Ally

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Captain Cameron wasn’t a gentle man and Jensen was just a cabin boy, a toy to amuse himself with, however he saw fit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the December Drabble Days

Nothing he could do would remove the taint on his body, but Jensen scrubbed his skin raw anyway.  Captain Cameron wasn’t a gentle man and Jensen was just a cabin boy, a toy to amuse himself with, however he saw fit.  
  
Tonight, Cameron shared him with half the crew.  
  
Jim Beaver came through the door, telegraphing his moves as he brought clean clothes.  
  
“I’m going to kill him,” Jensen told the sailor.  “Jim, I’m going to kill them all.”  
  
Jensen smiled and he knew it was wild.  The other man nodded back and Jensen knew, he finally had an ally.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the j2_everafter challenge on live journal! It's a remake of Treasure Planet. Thank you to nowadventuring for the amazing beta! All errors are mine because she seriously kicked me into shape with this :P *huggles* Thank you again!


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